Project Number: 5428-21000-013-20
Project Type: Reimbursable

Start Date: Nov 01, 2008
End Date: Jun 30, 2009

Objective:
To field test, and demonstrate to Florida honey beekeepers, the use of ozone as a fumigant for decontaminating stored comb and hive materials from pesticides, insect pests, and diseases.

Approach:
Spores of Ascosphaera apis (the cause of chalkbrood in honey bees) and Paenibacillus larvae (the cause of foulbrood) will be exposed to different rates of ozone (0.5, 1 and 1.5 mg/kg) for different time periods (24, 48, 36, and 72 hours), and under different temperature and humidity conditions. The primary purpose of these experiments is to determine whether sterilization conditions can reasonably be reached by beekeepers in on-farm fumigation chambers during different times of the year, and in different parts of the country. This will accomplish a reasonable determination of the exposure conditions necessary to decontaminate comb of insect pests, pesticide residues, and bee pathogens. We will select one set of conditions most likely to work for all these problems under typical Florida weather conditions during the winter. If warmer conditions are required, then space heaters can be added to the fumigation chambers. Then, in collaboration with the Florida Dept. of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Apiary Section, honey beekeepers (or groups of beekeepers) interested in participating in the project will be identified. The beekeepers will provide supers of used comb that have suspected or known contamination problems (e.g. wax moth or small hive beetle infestation, foulbrood scales, and pesticide exposures). ARS will evaluate and rate samples of these nesting materials for all these contamination problems. Then the comb will be placed in a fumigation chamber and treated, as per ARS pre-determined recommendations. After treatment, the same frames of comb will again be evaluated for wax moths, small hive beetles, foulbrood, and pesticides to determine if the treatments were effective. In addition, the treated materials will be returned to the beekeepers for their use. Beekeepers will be given instructions for monitoring the effect of treatments on their hives to include: acceptance of the material by the bees (as compared to untreated controls with similar contamination problems and as compared to uncontaminated, untreated comb), honey production, and survival of the colonies. Apiary inspectors will assist in determining the level of diseases and other health issues, where possible. Some colonies may be moved out of state for pollination and honey production, in which case, beekeeper evaluations will be relied on.