Balancing beekeeping and mosquito abatement in NC

A message from Dr. David Tarpy, NCSU to NCSBA

With the swirling news stories about the recent incident in South Carolina of a pesticide bee kill while trying to control the Zika mosquito, we thought it prudent to update NC beekeepers over this past holiday weekend about the current activities concerning the same issues: Click here to see the online news article.

In short, there are currently no immediate plans to initiate spray programs on a state-wide scale in NC. That said, there are many individuals, private citizens, who are paying commercial companies to treat their property. It is these ongoing treatments that can have enormous impact on backyard beekeepers and native bee populations. Communication is key, and we all need to do our part. This begins by educating ourselves about all aspects of this important issue, and requires that we notify our neighbors and public officials about apiaries and spraying. This article should give context and helpful links for anyone to be able to do just that.

Please disseminate to anyone else who you think may be interested. Please also note that there was since an erroneous FaceBook post that went viral citing a (very) old legacy web page from NCSU written by John Ambrose following hurricane Fran and the state-wide mosquito spraying that ensued. That information is clearly not current, nor did it even refer to the eventuality of spraying, but it has nonetheless been wiped from the CALS archives. It is unfortunate that this caused much confusion, particularly after the updated link above, but if there is a silver lining it has prompted many beekeepers to take advantage of registering their apiary locations with the NCDA&CS.

Sincerely,

David

David R. Tarpy

Professor and Extension Apiculturist

Department of Entomology & Plant Pathology

Campus Box 7613

North Carolina State University

Raleigh, NC 27695-7613

TEL: (919) 515-1660

FAX: (919) 515-7746

LAB: (919) 513-7702

WEB: http://entomology.ces.ncsu.edu/profile/david-tarpy/

EMAIL: david_tarpy@ncsu.edu

Type: Beekeeping Digest  Contact   ^top         < Prev   Current   Next >   of 131   Posted: 09/07/16     ID: 1473265589 # 1473265589