varroa mite is winning

I've gotten another email on the varoa mite that kills
our Oahu honey bees. The latest effort is to eradicate
all the bees on Oahu. Beekeepers are given $500 a hive
and the public can get $500 bounty for every wild hive
it reports to Dept of Ag. Problem is that while
beekeepers turn in the records of every hive that they
eradicate, the state wont show them their records so
that the double reporting doesn't confuse the issue.

You'd think that the state wouldn't hold back on these
records because of the possibility of being accused of
misconduct if they double pay for an eradication. Since
the beekeeper volunteers are doing most of the work,
you'd also think that the state wouldn't take such a
hostile attitude. The latest is that the legislature is
discussing this issue since the state (ie Lingle's
administration) has royally screw it up.

Also, I had heard that the state was trying to get ag
inspectors on the Super Ferry, but it's really up to
the Ferry. Looks like the ferry has chosen the
irresponsible route. I wonder if Maui farmers can sue
the super ferry if the varroa mite gets established
there?


Here's an excerpt from the email:

"To date the Hawai`i Department of Agriculture has
refused our repeated direct requests for access to the
Varroa survey data they have collected despite the fact
that we have shared our data with them (See attached
Varroa on Oahu Survey data). The have reneged and
their stated promises to provide our beekeepers on
O`ahu with materials to conduct field surveys, with
chemicals to treat Varroa and with screened bottom
boards and sticky board and other tools for Integrated
Pest Management of Varroa. Our small, all family and
small business run industry has been forced to raise
money on our own to combat this disaster that will
impact all sectors of diversified agriculture in the
state (see attached draft Economic Analyses).

We have not even been kept informed as to the progress
of a request for a supplemental appropriation to the
federal 2008 Farm Bill that we drafted to fund a truly
comprehensive Varroa suppression program across the
state. Nine months have passed since I discovered the
mites in Makiki Valley and there are still dozens of
feral colonies, all likely to be infested, on state and
county lands within 500 yards of the location of the
index case. More than 270 days have passed, more than
30 Superferry voyages to the outer islands have sailed
and returned often with live honey bees affixed to the
radiators of Oahu-based automobiles off-loaded on Maui
and Kaua`i and still there is no rational,
comprehensive plan in place. In our opinion this could
be considered gross negligence in the management of our
public trust assets and our food supply."

On Fri, 11 Jan 2008, Maren at google wrote:

> it would be good to have the whole email including headers and maybe
> to know who sent it (which is of course in the headers) Are you
> censoring something?
>
> I'd like to have bees here, but preferably not varroa mites.
>
> Now, they got here (well, not here for all I know, at least not
> yet). Little fire ants got here. Stinging nettle caterpillars got
> ere. Coqui frogs got here. "Coster's Curse" got here, miconia,
> stuff. The are a pain in the butt like waiawis are (but at least
> those are edible)..
>
> there's one big difference. If the varroa mite wipes out our bees
> (or people taking out wild bee colonies that may or may not have had
> them), a lot of other agriculture is going to go with it.

There's a number of polinators left, but I doubt that they can replace
honey bees. Most likely farmers can hand polinate to maintain their
production. Or they can plant crops that self polinate by the wind
like corn, or just plant crops that don't flower like lettuce (they'll
need to buy new seed though)

I just printed a short excerpt above because there is a ng policy (or
at least, I was once admonished not to reprint the whole article.
Either an excerpt or a link is good). In addition, I'm trying to
follow good net work ettiquette by keeping it short-- as I've trimmed
the above for this posting. More people should follow the 50-50 rule.

On Fri, 11 Jan 2008, Maren at google wrote:

> it would be good to have the whole email including
> headers and maybe to know who sent it (which is of
> course in the headers) Are you censoring something?
>
> I'd like to have bees here, but preferably not varroa
> mites.
>
> Now, they got here (well, not here for all I know, at
> least not yet). Little fire ants got here. Stinging
> nettle caterpillars got ere. Coqui frogs got here.
> "Coster's Curse" got here, miconia, stuff. The are a
> pain in the butt like waiawis are (but at least those
> are edible)..
>
> there's one big difference. If the varroa mite wipes
> out our bees (or people taking out wild bee colonies
> that may or may not have had them), a lot of other
> agriculture is going to go with it.

There's a number of polinators left, but I doubt that
they can replace honey bees. Most likely farmers can
hand polinate to maintain their production. Or they can
plant crops that self polinate by the wind like corn,
or just plant crops that don't flower like lettuce
(they'll need to buy new seed though)

I just printed a short excerpt above because there is a
ng policy (or at least, I was once admonished not to
reprint the whole article. Either an excerpt or a link
is good). In addition, I'm trying to follow good net
work ettiquette by keeping it short-- as I've trimmed
the above for this posting. More people should follow
the 50-50 rule.

"Alvin E. Toda" <aet@lava.net> wrote in message
news:1200246600-sch@news.lava.net...
>
> On Fri, 11 Jan 2008, Maren at google wrote:
>
>> it would be good to have the whole email including headers and maybe to
>> know who sent it (which is of course in the headers) Are you censoring
>> something?
>>
>> I'd like to have bees here, but preferably not varroa mites.
>>
>> Now, they got here (well, not here for all I know, at least not yet).
>> Little fire ants got here. Stinging nettle caterpillars got ere. Coqui
>> frogs got here. "Coster's Curse" got here, miconia, stuff. The are a pain
>> in the butt like waiawis are (but at least those are edible)..
>>
>> there's one big difference. If the varroa mite wipes out our bees (or
>> people taking out wild bee colonies that may or may not have had them), a
>> lot of other agriculture is going to go with it.
>
> There's a number of polinators left, but I doubt that they can replace
> honey bees. Most likely farmers can hand polinate to maintain their
> production. Or they can plant crops that self polinate by the wind
> like corn, or just plant crops that don't flower like lettuce (they'll
> need to buy new seed though)
>
> I just printed a short excerpt above because there is a ng policy (or
> at least, I was once admonished not to reprint the whole article.
> Either an excerpt or a link is good). In addition, I'm trying to
> follow good net work ettiquette by keeping it short-- as I've trimmed
> the above for this posting. More people should follow the 50-50 rule.

OK, Alvin...in the interests of "keeping it short" as per what you say:

a. just the header?

b. if it indeed is an article of which you speak, the link?

c. break that email into 20 parts and show us 5% each time?
Heck...break it
into 500 parts and show us 0.2% each time! That should satisfy the
"keeping
it short" criteria that concerns you so much.

On Tue, 15 Jan 2008 03:40:01 -0000, Maren at google
<m.purves@jach.hawaii.edu> wrote:

>
>On Jan 13, 7:50 am, "Alvin E. Toda" <a...@lava.net> wrote:
>> On Fri, 11 Jan 2008, Maren at google wrote:
>> > it would be good to have the whole email including headers and maybe
>> > to know who sent it (which is of course in the headers) Are you
>> > censoring something?
>
>Alvin forwarded me the whole email and I sent him my reply.
>As I had expected, there was a forwarder in there who is
>well known as a local activist of the CAVE (citizens against
>virtually everything) sort.
>
coffee is self fertile but also can be aided by bees. I hate the idea
of no bees. Hope the powers that be, figure it out PDQ.

aloha,
beans
roast beans to kona to email
farmers of Pure Kona

On Wed, 16 Jan 2008, beans@smithfarms.com wrote:

> coffee is self fertile but also can be aided by bees.
> I hate the idea of no bees. Hope the powers that be,
> figure it out PDQ.
>
> aloha,
> beans
> roast beans to kona to email
> farmers of Pure Kona

IIRC that's what I've heard. It's the macadamia nuts
that need polination on the big island. Don't know how
big that industry is in Hawaii, but the foreign
competition for the nuts is fierce. Polination problems
might do it in here.

However, the big island is a big exporter of bees since
it is one of the last places on the planet that is free
of the varroa mite. Australia and New Zeland also ship
bees but they have mite programs which we in the US
lack. Basically, private beekeepers keep restocking by
shipping in new bees. The feral bee populations are
dead. Hopefully places like Kona Gold Queen Bees can
continue to ship even if the big island becomes
infested with the mites.

OTOH there is another bee problem that is making its
way here, and that's a virus that seems to be a country
cousin of the AIDS virus. The bees have weakened immune
systems and at some point the sick bees cannot find
their way back to the hive. The afflicted hives appear
abandoned. The virus has been first identified in
Israel and has first appeared in Florida. But it is
believed to have come originally from Australia or New
Zeland. Perhaps because of our airshipments from
Australia and New Zeland, we got the varroa mite.
Volunteers inspect planes with bee cargoes which are
transferred between planes in Hawaii. Don't know if the
inspections have stopped because we already have the
mite on Oahu. But how about the virus coming here?

On Thu, 17 Jan 2008, Maren at google wrote:

>> Maren... you miss the point: Why have environmental
>> laws if all a business has to do to avoid them is to
>> get the governor to ignore it? If you ignore the
>> basic issue, then you don't have to deal with it?
>
> as this is about to come full circle I'll stop it
> here, but not without pointing out again that - the
> Superferry guys were told by the Governor they didn't
> need an EIS - on the basis of this they spent (or
> invested) a lot of money - when they were ready to
> operate and had everything in place the rug was
> pulled out from under them.

I don't see how the rug can be pulled... They asked
that the state ignore the law. I think that we agree
that what you describe is exactly what the state did to
ignore the law.

Your opinion would make more sense if you had stated
that despite the possible environmental damage that the
SuperFerry might do, that you think that the economic
benefits are worth ignoring the law. Perhaps the state
and the SuperFerry might find themselves the object of
a law suit from the counties if the varroa mite is
spread to the rest of the state by the SuperFerry, but
that is another question entirely...