Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
There's a couple of ways to approach controlling pests and diseases for the backyard
hobbyist.
You can begin at the beginning of the beekeeping season
, progress from start to
finish taking each management technique in stride as it comes along. This works well
and makes sense until you try and encompass every management style and technique
imaginable (from warm to cold, tropical to temperate, forest to field, desert to city).
Some things will get dropped.
Approach each issue in each season as a separate event
, reviewing in detail the
techniques each may require. You end up handling many things in an encyclopedic
manner, so you either know what the problem is and want to find a solution, or you have
a problem you don't understand and need to first define the problem, and then find the
answer.
There is usually a complex of events ongoing in your beehive that will need atten-
tion. As a beginner I found that I dealt better with each of these when working with
each as an individual issue rather than a complex of trials.
At the same time, you have to consider the level of seriousness each of these can
play. Some pests are merely a nuisance to the bees or to you, while others are lethal
without intervention. Chemical use is an integral part of IPM, but it is (thankfully) usu-
ally the last resort for treatment.
Maladies
The first season you have bees it is unlikely you will encounter a serious disease prob-
lem. Some pests may become a problem later in the season and if you have bought used
equipment some of these diseases may show up. But mostly, new bees on new equip-
ment have a honeymoon before the problems of the world come home. By the fall, dur-
ing the coming winter and by the second spring, however, you need to be most aware of
all the bad things in the world. But still, some may show up right away and to be safe
you should know what they are and what to do if they come to visit.
Nosema
There are two nosema diseases:
Nosema apis
, a long-time foe for beekeepers, which
is rapidly being replaced by the much more competitive
Nosema ceranae
. Both are
protozoan-caused diseases spread by spores and they attack only adult bees after they
have eaten the spores.
Nosema apis
was primarily a problem in the winter and early
spring while its replacement tends to be a problem in the summer and fall.
Symptoms are not easily observed, especially in the early stages and it can be a dif-
ficult disease to identify. The best treatment is to assume your bees have a mild infest-
ation and to combat it the best way you can. Since the protozoa attack the midgut of
