OHIO DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
OFFICE OF COMMUNICATIONS
NEWS RELEASE

(Division of Plant Industry - Apiary Section)

ODA Acts to Minimize New Threat to Ohio Bees, the Small Hive Beetle

REYNOLDSBURG -- The Ohio Department of Agriculture has begun a series of steps to thwart an invasion of Ohio honeybee hives by a destructive new tropical pest, the small hive beetle, Agriculture Director Fred L. Dailey said today. 

The insect reportedly has decimated thousands of beehives in four southern states since last June, when their presence in the United States was first confirmed. Small hive beetles were first discovered in Ohio last Thursday in package bees imported in mid-April by several Central Ohio beekeepers from an apiary in South Carolina. After viewing a specimen sent by ODA, USDA bee experts in Maryland confirmed the identification last Friday. 

"This pest poses a very real threat to the future of Ohio apiaries," Dailey said. "According to experts, this beetle can destroy even a strong beehive in a matter of weeks. The industry and our department must take decisive action to stop this infestation before this pest becomes established in Ohio." 

Besides honey production, bees from Ohio's 30,000 bee colonies are important to the agriculture industry because they pollinate Ohio's fruit and vegetable crops, such as apples, cucumbers, and pumpkins, making an estimated $225 million contribution. 

Here are actions ODA officials are taking against the small hive beetle: 

• ODA sent letters last Friday to 18 beekeepers, mostly in Central Ohio, who were believed to have received bees in mid-April from Blue Ridge Apiaries, a South Carolina apiary. ODA asked the beekeepers, all members of the Central Ohio Beekeepers Association, to refrain from moving, distributing, selling, or exchanging any hives, bees, or honey until ODA apiary inspectors have examined their property. Those inspections began Monday.

• ODA also Monday began investigating reports that a number of other Ohio beekeepers have imported bees this year from Blue Ridge Apiaries, although it is not known whether those colonies were infested. In addition, the department will this week pursue legal means to prevent future exports to Ohio of bee colonies from Blue Ridge or other infested sources.

• Last Friday ODA asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to approve the use by Ohio beekeepers of the organophosphate insecticide coumaphos to combat the beetles. USEPA agreed to the request Monday. The chemical has been federally approved for use on a state-by-state basis over the past several months wherever the beetle has invaded bee hives. There are no other insecticides for the small hive beetle approved for use in Ohio.

• ODA faxed information about the beetles Monday to county commissioners to forward to Ohio's county apiary inspectors. Seventy such inspectors work for county governments across Ohio to monitor the health of Ohio's apiaries.

Director Dailey offered these instructions to Ohio apiarists:

• Beekeepers should check their colonies regularly for beetle infestation and cooperate fully with county and state apiary inspectors. Those wanting more information on this issue may call ODA's Apiary Section at 614-728-6373 or toll free at 800-282-1955.

• If a hive is infested, it may be treated with coumaphos insecticide strips. Beekeepers may obtain the strips by calling Simpson's Bee Supply in Danville, Ohio, at 740-393-2111, or Queen Wright Colonies in Spencer, Ohio, at 440-647-2602. Both will offer the product under the trade name CheckMite+. For other retailers, beekeepers may call the distributor, Mann Lake Ltd. of Minnesota, toll free at 800-233-6663 or 800-880-7694. Honey from treated hives is unfit for human consumption.

• Beekeepers may also want to exploit a vulnerable point of the beetles' life cycle, when mature larvae enter the soil underneath the hive to pupate. Soil conditioning agents may be used to kill the beetles when they are in this stage. Muriate of potash, often known as 0060 fertilizer, may act as a dehydrating agent and kill the pupae, similar to boric acid crystals for roach control in urban environments.

The small hive beetle, or Aethina tumida, is believed to have migrated to the U.S. from South Africa. It has been found since last June in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina, causing serious destruction to bee hives there. 

The adult beetle is black and about one third the size of a worker bee. Larvae are elongated, whitish grubs that have three pairs of legs and can be mistaken for wax moth larvae. However, small hive beetle larvae do not spin cocoons and must complete their development outside the beehive in the soil. Larvae can be seen crawling out of hive entrances or from stored honey supers (sections of the hive where honey is stored) in colonies with heavy infestations. The beetles feed on honey and pollen stored in the hive, ruin the honey and comb, multiply quickly, and eventually force bees to abandon the hive. 

More detailed information on the small hive beetle, along with photographs of adult beetles and beetle larvae, may be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.bugwood.caes.uga.edu/.

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