Hyperthermia for bees: a wonderful or useless weapon

Beekeeping has a very serious problem with varroa and other diseases. They have been looking for solutions for decades. Currently it is being controlled with acaricides, i.e. chemical products. Recently, however, they have recently returned to a method that does not use any chemicals at all, hyperthermia. Also, chemical methods can leave traces in the honey, but this does not happen with the hyperthermia method.

Summary: Hyperthermia is another non-chemical method that kills and decimates varroa. It works at temperatures that the bee can withstand, but not the varroa. Its effectiveness according to this article is proven. Also, in our shop in Las Rozas de Madrid we offer you a wide selection of ecological honeys. Honeys such as: Heather, arbutus, rosemary, thyme…

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1. Hyperthermia

Hyperthermia (higher than normal temperature rise) is a method that was used decades ago to treat the varroa mite, a mite that causes enormous damage to honey bees worldwide.

In 2005 the German government financed a hyperthermia treatment against varroa, the bee sauna. This method created a great deal of excitement and excitement, but what is its true functioning and what can be expected of it?

The idea of killing mites with heat was first investigated in the 1970s in the former Soviet Union and Japan. At that time it was already known that varroa was susceptible to heat. The optimum development temperature of the hive’s brood chamber is 34.5 ºC, that of the varroa against only 32 degrees. Research from this time of year has shown that varroa is susceptible to temperatures above 38°C and after being subjected to such temperatures for long periods of time can cause the death of varroa. Therefore and theoretically, a treatment of these against varroa would kill them and the bees should be recovered.

The German honey and bee journal “Journal Bienen” interviewed Dr. Stefan Berg, a specialist in bees, beekeeping and honey, in Veitshöchheim, a village not far from Frankfurt in Germany, to find out how effective these treatments are and how well they work.

2. Hyperthermia treatment: for the entire hive or just to treat the brood comb?

Hyperthermia can be a method of killing varroa without the use of chemicals. Different researchers and beekeepers started to use and develop numerous devices, some of them to control the entire hive and others only acted in the breeding chamber, but all of them using heat as the main factor. In this way, try to kill as many mites as possible and avoid bee losses as much as possible.

Numerous researchers and centres specialising in bees and honey in Veitschöchheim, Germany, under the tutelage of Dr. Stefan Berg, have investigated three main types of hyperthermine apparatus: the varroa eliminator (Varroaeliminator), the varroa controller (varroa Controller) and the varroa killer 2 (Varroa Kill 2).

These are the five questions that were asked of Dr. Stefan Berg:

a) What are the current results of hyperthermia devices against varroa?

The’Varroa Controller’ and the’Varroaeliminator’ are devices which operate in the brood chambers, inserting these instruments into the box with the brood apiaries and heating their interior to hyperthermic temperatures. After treatment with these two devices, the brood chambers were made free of varroa.

The third device, the Varroa Kill 2, consists of an empty arch which is placed over the brood chamber and leaves the exit hole of the hive open. A device that does not necessarily treat bees. However, the result of this was not so positive.

b) But what were the exact results of the treatment?

The results of the former were very satisfactory. The first two devices had a high degree of efficacy, with 87 to 97 percent of the breeding chamber mites dying through heat treatment. However, treatment with Varro Kill2 was significantly poorer on the first attempt, killing only 56 percent of the breeding chamber mites on the first attempt. One possible reason for these unsatisfactory results was that the device was used in most cases poorly isolated. With the second attempt we isolated the hive better, achieving more satisfactory results.

c) At what temperature do mites die?

When the brood hives are heated for about two hours to about 41°C, most of the young mites are killed, but unfortunately the more adult ones survive well. We treated each hive separately, and only 10 percent of the adult mites were affected. After a lengthening of the process, reaching three hours and 42 ºC we managed to kill almost all the adult mites.

d) But don’t such high temperatures harm bees?

This depends on several factors, if a queen is placed in a hive at 45°C and left there for two hours, it is very likely to be affected, but fortunately the hyperthermia devices do not work that way. They heat the combs or the hive slowly and for a specific time, controlling the maximum temperatures that the hive can reach.

However, for drone larvae, we have detected that two hours at 41 ºC they tolerate it without any problem. HOwever, drones that are born develop a smaller amount of sperm. Damage also occurs to the bees responsible for rearing them. However, the extent of the damage may be justified, as the damage does not exceed the maximum of 10 to 15 % of the young.

e) Can other treatments be completely dispensed with when using heat?

To this end, I do not want to create false expectations. In principle, hypertherin works well, but I cannot imagine that hyperthermia treatment can be used fantastically early in the year when treatment with other means is not relevant. In addition, this year-round treatment is labour intensive and very expensive.

f) Our opinion:

Let us hope that a solution will be found in the fight against the varroa and the collapse of the bees. Because these are on the way to disappearing, and the consequences would be very harmful to everyone, both human beings, nature and the planet itself. As far as hyperthermia is concerned, I think it is very interesting, because if this procedure can be improved we could rid the bees of so much chemical product. This products always ends up in the raw honey that we quality honey lovers end up consuming.

Fuente:

La revista alemana especializada en apicultura “Bienen Journal”. Hyperthermie: Wunderwaffe oder wirkunglos? (Hipertermina: maravillosa arma o un fracaso. http://www.bienenjournal.de/