Posted on 09/20/2020 12:21:21 AM PDT by nickcarraway
An almond farmer is relying upon chemistry to keep bees in his orchards for longer.(Supplied: David Lyall) Share
How do you keep bees in your orchard when there are more attractive flowering plants in the vicinity? The answer may lie in pheromones.
Dollops of pheromones have been sprayed into flowering almond orchards near Robinvale, in north-west Victoria, with the aim of creating excitement among bees, thus creating more nuts.
Bees are essential for the fruit to set, so getting the insects to stay and do their job rather than go foraging in forests elsewhere is vital.
Organic Crop Protectants' Tony Filippi said it was important to get the smell just right.
"The bee has many different pheromones that it emits," he said.
"This one is a common one — it's called the nasonov, and it stimulates the bee to let other bees know there's something good out there.
"We're using a novel bit of chemistry in a paste–like substance called SPLAT, which means Specialised Pheromone Lure Attractant Technique."
Mr Filippi said he used a machine he called "the splatagator" to shoot pink, dough-like goo into the trunks of almond trees.
"We're putting small dollops throughout the orchard to stimulate the bees to come into that part of the orchard, to work longer and to move a little further and more evenly through the orchard," he said.
"It's a biodegradable vegetable wax and it's completely organic, so there no fear of lingering residues.
"It adheres to the tree and within a couple of hours will dry … and slowly emit the volatile or the pheromone.
"For this particular produce it can take over four to six weeks (to last)."
He said the substance could be applied in a few ways, depending on the size of the orchard.
"We have it available in a caulking gun, which can be hand applied and is good in small situations," Mr Filippi said.
"But, in a commercial orchard, we have a machine where we can travel along (rows) between 10 and 12 kilometres shooting dollops into the trees."
Mr Filippi said the Californian product could be used to seduce insects for a variety of purposes.
"The wax-like dollops carry whatever substance that we want into the tree," he said.
"So… we can use it for a feeding attractant, attract and kill technique (pest insects) … and it can also have a repellent put in it."
Mr Filippi said weather played an important part in a successful pollination program. He said bees wouldn't come out if the temperature was less than 13 degrees.
Find more rural news See the latest news and information from the agriculture and mining industries, including weather and the markets, on ABC Rural. "You need to maximise bee activity within the orchard to cross-pollinate the flowers, so anything to enhance it will help it," he said.
"What the bees are searching for is pollen and nectar. Nectar for food for themselves, but the pollen is very important to cap the brood or the eggs that they have in their cells within the hive. They need to put a cap over the top of them and they use pollen to do this.
"They do need to go out and do some foraging, especially when the colony is in growth phase, and the trouble with this time of the year is it's very cold and wet periodically and it interferes with the bees foraging."
Apiarist and Bee Innovative chief executive, David Lyall is also involved in the project. An Unmanned Aviation Vehicles (UAV) pilot, he flies a drone across the almond trees to assess bee activity.
"We're using technology that we've developed to track where the bees are working in the orchard, and we provide that to the farmers so they can see which parts of their crops are being well pollinated and which areas are being poorly pollinated," he said.
Mr Lyall uses a radar-like sensor to watch the bees.
"We call it 'beedar', and effectively it's the first time growers are able to track in real time where the bees are working," he said.
"The radar emits a high energy signal, and that bounces back off the crop and the bees and other insects that are working in the crop.
"We've got an algorithm that differentiates from other insects and other objects in the orchard based on their size, density and flight pattern."
Mr Lyall said that while the technology might appear to be manipulative, it was originally designed to protect bees from their enemies.
"The genesis to look at the problem was really about developing technology to help keep varroa destructor mite out of Australia," he said.
"Varroa is a terrible blight on the beekeeping industry around the world and Australia at this stage is lucky enough to be the only country left on the planet that doesn't have it.
https://theecologist.org/2015/may/02/bee-collapse-result-their-enslavement-industrial-monocultures
My wife pulled 100 lbs. of honey from her 6 hives this year. All wildflower fed. She sells It for $1.00 an ounce and will sell out easily to locals and friends who appreciate he good stuff. If you buy cheap honey you are buying crap honey. Yes you can see and taste the difference. Same as a fresh tomato just off the vine and one that was “ripened” by ethylene sitting for weeks in a tractor trailer.
I cant post whats going thru my male mind so I’ll just say “fascinating”.
I have no clue if it’s true, but I’ve heard local honey from wild flowers helps with allergies.
As a beekeeper I feel this is a bad idea.
Bad in a lot of different ways.
Bees forage up to two miles from their hives. In addition, there are several caveats, you have to be allergic to the same types of plants the bees are foraging on. For example in the spring bees forage alot on the trees’s nectar flow. So honey made from spring gathering would help with tree pollen allergies. The honey must be raw, unprocessed. Any heating or pasteurization will kill off honey’s benefits. That is why you should add your honey to your tea only after it has cooled off a bit.
I am what my wife calls a nonpracticing certified bee keeper. She does all the work. I mow the grass around the bee yard. I do get my cut - ten lb. jar for my yearly supply - off the top of the first pull.
Ulee’s Gold is the best movie about beekeeping, stars Peter Fonda. Quite realistic for a small scale commercial operator.
“Dollops of pheromones have been sprayed into flowering almond orchards near Robinvale, in north-west Victoria, with the aim of creating excitement among bees, thus creating more nuts.”
This may be a poor way of putting it, but it is basically correct.
rwood
Honeybees are not the only pollinators. A much better species of bees for pollination is the common eastern bumble bee, which nests in the ground. It is already being used for some crops, as it is less sensitive than honeybees to parasites and pesticides. However, it is more limited in its range.
Oddly enough, “killer” bees produce very high quality honey.
“I have no clue if it’s true, but I’ve heard local honey from wild flowers helps with allergies.”
i know several people, including Mrs. Catnipman, that swear that local honey is practically a miracle when it comes to suppressing local pollen allergies ... the honey has to be VERY local AND not heavily filtered ...
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