When Time Magazine put
out an issue dealing with the modern plight of bees, one of the topics
discussed was hive collapse due to beetles. The problem is international and intensifying
as weather events provide favorable conditions for the little invaders in
places that were less hospitable in the past. In south Mississippi, a beekeeper
with an inventive mind has created a solution which is both creative in its
approach and elegant in its simplicity.
For Haynes Haselmaier, the problem became personal. In the
aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, he saw Mississippi hives suffer with incursions
of small
hive beetles (Aethina tumida). His own hives showed telltale signs. With a
century of beekeeping experience in his family, Haselmaier didn’t want to give
up on his hives. He tried many of the commercially available remedies at the
time. As he points out, no three of the available methods combined kept him
from losing hives.
Read more about this amazing invention here.
