SOME BEEKEEPERS are sprinkling their honey bees with caster sugar to defeat the biggest threat to Irish honey bees, the varroa mite.
The bees lick it off their companions and the process causes great excitement in the hive, with the result that the mites fall off the bees and get disturbed by the vibrations.
This folk remedy is one of the weapons being used by Ireland’s 2,000 beekeepers to control the disease, which presents the single greatest threat to the honey bee population.
The varroa destructor mite is a parasite that preys on the bees and weakens them, leaving them open to a variety of diseases. Once it gets into a colony it can cause total destruction.
Imported here in the late 1990s, it was first identified in Co Sligo, where beekeepers were paid to destroy their stocks by the Department of Agriculture.
David Lee of Kildorrey, Co Cork, one of the country’s foremost beekeepers, confirmed the “sugar for my honey” treatment but said keepers were looking to science to provide a cure for the mite.
“We don’t like using chemicals like Bayvoral or Apiguard, which can control the mite, so lots of people are trying alternative methods, including sprinkling caster sugar on the bees,” he said.
He and fellow beekeepers have welcomed the announcement €300,000 is to be provided over the next three years for a number of bee-related research initiatives.
Ted Massey of the Department of Agriculture and Food said the the national apiculture programme was aimed at finding alternative methods of controlling the varroa threat.
It would also collect information on colony losses here and give technical assistance and disseminate information to beekeepers.
He said there were no reports so far that Ireland’s population of bees had been hit by the colony collapse disorder, which has caused major damage in the United States.
When he announced the funding for the new programme, Ciarán Cuffe, Minister of State for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, said there had been serious falls in honey bee populations world wide because of colony collapse disorder.
“The causes of this major threat to honey bees is not yet clear but healthy honey bee populations are an important part of our food and natural ecosystems, ” he said.
The European Commission was putting significantly more resources into bee health and was in the process of establishing an EU reference laboratory for bee disease, Mr Cuffe added.