>
> Another big difference is your winter when the bees go
> dormant. There's been some speculation about using a
> fungus during that dormant period to kill the mites.
> It's an organic method anyway and our state has been
> testing the fungi here rather than try to import
> anything. Trouble is that the weather here is pretty
> much the same all year around. There's no dormant
> period in Hawaii even for european domesticated bees.
> This is the commercial variety most common the world
> wide. Unfortunately, it means that a pest such as the
> varroa mite that can kill them will also almost wipe
> out all of the world's domesticated bees.
>
> Tuesday there was an op-ed piece in the Honolulu
> Star-Bulletin from the Chair Women of the Hawaii Board
> of agriculture. She says that the board decided that
> the mite was already too well established on Oahu to
> exterminate. But beekeepers feel that it is possible
> to exterminate because this is really a small island.
> It's estimated that all bees could be exterminated in a
> short time and after a total of three months, clean
> bees could be re-introduced from our big island
> beekeepers. So the impact on agriculture might only be
> 3 to five months, and they could plant non-polinating
> crops like lettuce, etc in that time.
>
> Mostly all Oahu feral bees except for our hives have
> been exterminated. But there is no state effort to try
> to control things on Oahu except to monitor for any
> hives near the ports and airports. I think that this is
> what HDOA is doing on the big island now. The hope is
> that they've caught the contagion early there. I could
> be wrong but IIRC they want to remove hives within a
> two mile radius of the port. But I recall that the
> desired radius should really be 5 miles.
>
> Here is the link to the Star-Bulletin op-ed. It's an
> example of a policy that is penny-wise and
> pound-foolish. The state is in an economic downturn. A
> failure of agriculture in the state would make it
> worse.
>
>
http://starbulletin.com/2008/09/16/editorial/commentary.html
>
[darn - hit the send key by prematurely. Sorry about that]
hmmm...but as per Alvin's
"I could be wrong but IIRC they want to remove hives within a two mile
radius of the port. But I recall that the desired radius should really
be 5
miles."
according to this Star-Bulletin article
http://starbulletin.com/2008/08/24/news/story05.html
"The rapid response team will destroy all feral beehives within a 5-mile
radius of Hilo Bay. "
If true, the square miles involved "within a 5-mile radius of Hilo
Bay" is
much more extensive than even a 5-mile "radius of the port" insofar as
the
the circumference of the bay itself is so much greater than that of
just the
port, assuming that the "port" alludes strictly to that area of Hilo Bay
where the ships visit/tie up.
My question is - has the probable vector responsible for the varroa mite
appearing in Hilo been established at this point? Could the culprit
have
been that dreaded Superferry even though the Superferry itself does
not go
to Hilo? Maybe a nerfarious auto on the Superferry carried the mite
from
Honolulu to Maui, from whence the mite made its way to Hilo?
[Alvin -
Did I not correctly quote you here?
And I did not accuse you of lying did I?
I don't want you to again go around falsely claiming either/both.]
