Bayer Bee Gate

The bee gate

A new way of protecting bees against varroa mite


http://www.research.bayer.com/en/varroa-mite.aspx

Red Bee said:

The bee gate

A new way of protecting bees against varroa mite


http://www.research.bayer.com/en/varroa-mite.aspx

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Poacher turned Game Keeper ?

Bayvarol on a stick then?

Roughly 30% of the mites are phoretic (mobile, not embedded in brood cells) at any given time in the active season.

In population survival/growth terms it is in the interest of the mites to stay close to the brood; any that depart with foragers risk being lost in the field with that forager. The exception being that young workers who habituate the brood area may take orientation flights circa days 6-10.

The diagram and description on p86 make the device sound like a pollen trap. Clearly this would be counter productive; an intuitive uninvasive approach would be for a stripe to be applied dorsally - just like himalayan balsam pollen stripes.

Towards the end of the article it is noted that the formulation and application rate are still being fine-tuned, and they claim successes with early trials. I missed any reference to the active ingredient(s) being tested.

Red Bee said:

The bee gate

A new way of protecting bees against varroa mite

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The claim is that it doses bees entering the hive. But the bulk of the mites are inside with the brood. To get to the mites you're going to have to use the returning bees to vector in the acaricide and flood the hive with it. Less control and more dose variability than with a strip would be my guess. Is that an advance?

I can see maybe a marginal use as prophylactic to stop new varroa infecting a clean hive. But that's low level and continuous exposure, i.e. ideal for breeding resistant mites. Am I seeing only the negatives?

Could it be something that has lead on from this....


Bayer Crop Science acquires varroa mite control product from Exosect


http://www.research-in-germany.de/n...-product-from-exosect,sourcePageId=66700.html

alanf said:

I can see maybe a marginal use as prophylactic to stop new varroa infecting a clean hive. But that's low level and continuous exposure, i.e. ideal for breeding resistant mites. Am I seeing only the negatives?

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Perhaps a potential to reduce re-invasion by mites as nearby infested colonies collapse? The downside of any regime to control the mite numbers is that it is almost inherently out of sync with what your neighbours are (or are not) doing. Hence re-invasions can suddenly elevate a previously controlled population.

Hivemaker. said:

Could it be something that has lead on from this....
Bayer Crop Science acquires varroa mite control product from Exosect

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Different delivery, but the basics of using electrostatic forces to spread the powder on bees could be useful. I can't think putting a powder that needs to stay dry at the entrance where it catches the weather is a good move

Hivemaker. said:

Could it be something that has lead on from this....


Bayer Crop Science acquires varroa mite control product from Exosect

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Hi Pete - good spot. Looks like that is a thymol-based product, though, using palm-derived wax powder to transport the thymol. The Bee Gate blurb talks about impregnated plastic, very much in the style of traditional mite strips.

anyone know would it be put on for the whole year or just a few weeks?

There's long presentation on this on YouTube from the honey show -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BopnuGfJDpk

Looks interesting, as always I'll wait for feedback from ordinary beeks before giving it a whirl.

Although they havent given a release date, and say " final adjustments for dosage still being made" I am very sceptical.
Its again another Miticide from a chemical company.

Yes, Bayer
The Devil's work

Erichalfbee said:

Yes, Bayer
The Devil's work

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Yes the devils work, they also produce drugs that save millions of lives a year worldwide.

yes, a lot of people still take their painkiller they marketed in 1901, a really succesful product

MuswellMetro said:

yes, a lot of people still take their painkiller they marketed in 1901, a really succesful product

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They do indeed, and another one is Aspirin, there is good and bad in everything.

Bayer's first major product was acetylsalicylic acid (originally discovered by French chemist Charles Frederic Gerhardt in 1853), a modification of salicylic acid or salicin, a folk remedy found in the bark of the willow plant. By 1899, Bayer's trademark Aspirin was registered worldwide for Bayer's brand of acetylsalicylic acid

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Hivemaker. said:

Yes the devils work, they also produce drugs that save millions of lives a year worldwide.

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Of course they do but I thought we were discussing a product that applies an insecticide directly to a bee as she enters her hive.

Hivemaker. said:

They do indeed, and another one is Aspirin, there is good and bad in everything.

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Even in their earliest days they were as much concerned with making money as they were making drugs .. They didn't invent aspirin - they ring fenced the discovery.

"When production of Aspirin began in 1899, Bayer sent out small packets of the drug to doctors, pharmacists and hospitals, advising them of Aspirin's uses and encouraging them to publish about the drug's effects and effectiveness. As positive results came in and enthusiasm grew, Bayer sought to secure patent and trademark wherever possible. It was ineligible for patent in Germany (despite being accepted briefly before the decision was overturned), but Aspirin was patented in Britain (filed December 22, 1898) and the United States (US Patent 644,077 issued February 27, 1900). The British patent was overturned in 1905, the American patent was also besieged but was ultimately upheld. Bayer also sued the most egregious patent violators and smugglers. The company's attempts to hold onto its Aspirin sales incited criticism from muckraking journalists and the American Medical Association, especially after the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act that prevented trademarked drugs from being listed in the United States Pharmacopeia; Bayer listed ASA with an intentionally convoluted generic name (monoacetic acid ester of salicylic acid) to discourage doctors referring to anything but Aspirin "

Whilst some of their 'discoveries' have clearly been of assistance to mankind when you look at the historic profits and the protectionist nature of the Bayer corporation I don't think I'd hold them up as a beacon of philanthropy.

pargyle said:

They didn't invent aspirin

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You can see who discoverd the chemical in Aspirin by reading the quote I did.

But generally I think all the big organizations that produce medicines should be shut down, after all they make money from it.

pargyle said:

Whilst some of their 'discoveries' have clearly been of assistance to mankind when you look at the historic profits and the protectionist nature of the Bayer corporation I don't think I'd hold them up as a beacon of philanthropy.

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They, with Syngenta, are behind this http://www.ceh.ac.uk/our-science/projects/impacts-neonicotinoids-honeybees samples for which are being solicited in this month's Beecraft