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Almond Facts
MARCH | APRIL 2017
THE BEE BOX
Bee Informed Partnership heat map
showing varying levels of Varroa mite
infestations at the county level for a
few states in the mid-Atlantic region.
within a region to compare their
results and track what is happening at
a national level.
One fairly new development is the
addition of heat maps to show, at the
county level, what the latest Varroa
mite loads are. Varroa mites are
large ectoparasites that are arguably
the single greatest cause of colony
mortality since they hit U.S. shores
in the late 1980s. The European
honey bees that make up our stock
have little resistance to these mites.
The mites breed within the honey
bee brood and vector viruses to both
adults and brood that destroy a colony
if the infestation is not kept in check.
These Varroa mites are found in
every colony in the U.S. except for a
few islands in Hawaii. These maps
could alert beekeepers within those
counties with high Varroa infestations
to monitor their levels more frequently
and, if found to be high, to treat their
colonies with a miticide.
Sentinel Apiaries are providing near
real-time data not only about what
is happening to local and national
honey bee colonies, but to our climate
as a whole. As we watch the spring
“green-up” trend happen earlier each
year, the chance of an interruption
in the mutualistic relationship
between plants and pollinators
increases. Tracking both will be
key to monitoring, understanding
and possibly creating models for the
future. If you are a beekeeper and
are interested in joining our Sentinel
Apiary Program, please contact me at
.
