Ecological Solutions - Management Plan #2 - Colony Collapse Disorder
Strategy 2 - Further the use of Hop Guard to lessen varroa mite population
Details
· Hop Guard is an insecticide that is being commercially produced. It uses beta plant acids to reduce the mite population in hives without harming developing or packaged bees (United, 2012).
· Hop Guard leaves no residue of any kind in a honeybee hive (United, 2012)
· During the meeting mentioned in Outline One, the beekeepers would be notified of Hop Guard’s potential benefits to hives and the guidelines of use in La Plata County.
· It will be mandatory to apply Hop Guard to all hives in apiaries in La Plata County on March 1st every year.
· Two strips of Hop Guard are to be hung in the hives. In apiaries, two strips are hung for every ten frames (Varroa, 2012).
· The USDA will pay for the supply of Hop Guard.
· These actions will be funded by the USDA and will be directed by Durango Buzz Club.
· Volunteers from the community, hives’ beekeepers, and employees from the Durango Buzz Club will be responsible for applying Hop Guard to the hives.
· Before the one-year of application, local employees of the Durango National Forest and the Durango Buzz Club as well as volunteers will survey and estimate the amount of active beehives in all the local apiaries in the area. After the one-year of application, a similar group of volunteers and employees will return to the same apiaries to collect the same type of data.
· This plan will be considered successful if, after two years of application, the population of honeybees in La Plata County has increased by 15%.
Benefits
· Hop Guard will reduce the mite population in hives, therefore reducing the amount of diseases entering the bee population of the hive (Kaplan, 2009).
· The application of Hop Guard will help to reduce deaths of honeybees locally even if they aren’t deaths caused by CCD (Jacobsen, 2008).
· Beginning to fight CCD locally will set an example for other counties.
Cons
· Hop Guard is $30 per box. Each box comes with 50 strips. (Hop Guard, 2011). With 21,100 frames in La Plata County, it will cost $4,500 to supply all hives with two strips a year.
· There has been no research conducted exploring whether Hop Guard and Apivar used together effect a hive in a different way than a hive reacts to just Hop Guard or just Apivar. In other terms, using Apivar and Hop Guard together may cause a synergistic effect.
· There are still wild honeybee populations that will not be treated.
· In order to use Hop Guard in Colorado, applicators have to possess an Applicator License.
Details
· Hop Guard is an insecticide that is being commercially produced. It uses beta plant acids to reduce the mite population in hives without harming developing or packaged bees (United, 2012).
· Hop Guard leaves no residue of any kind in a honeybee hive (United, 2012)
· During the meeting mentioned in Outline One, the beekeepers would be notified of Hop Guard’s potential benefits to hives and the guidelines of use in La Plata County.
· It will be mandatory to apply Hop Guard to all hives in apiaries in La Plata County on March 1st every year.
· Two strips of Hop Guard are to be hung in the hives. In apiaries, two strips are hung for every ten frames (Varroa, 2012).
· The USDA will pay for the supply of Hop Guard.
· These actions will be funded by the USDA and will be directed by Durango Buzz Club.
· Volunteers from the community, hives’ beekeepers, and employees from the Durango Buzz Club will be responsible for applying Hop Guard to the hives.
· Before the one-year of application, local employees of the Durango National Forest and the Durango Buzz Club as well as volunteers will survey and estimate the amount of active beehives in all the local apiaries in the area. After the one-year of application, a similar group of volunteers and employees will return to the same apiaries to collect the same type of data.
· This plan will be considered successful if, after two years of application, the population of honeybees in La Plata County has increased by 15%.
Benefits
· Hop Guard will reduce the mite population in hives, therefore reducing the amount of diseases entering the bee population of the hive (Kaplan, 2009).
· The application of Hop Guard will help to reduce deaths of honeybees locally even if they aren’t deaths caused by CCD (Jacobsen, 2008).
· Beginning to fight CCD locally will set an example for other counties.
Cons
· Hop Guard is $30 per box. Each box comes with 50 strips. (Hop Guard, 2011). With 21,100 frames in La Plata County, it will cost $4,500 to supply all hives with two strips a year.
· There has been no research conducted exploring whether Hop Guard and Apivar used together effect a hive in a different way than a hive reacts to just Hop Guard or just Apivar. In other terms, using Apivar and Hop Guard together may cause a synergistic effect.
· There are still wild honeybee populations that will not be treated.
· In order to use Hop Guard in Colorado, applicators have to possess an Applicator License.