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Bee
From Page A1
accidentally by hobbyists smuggling foreign breeding stock. These Asian mites have killed off virtually all wild bees in the U.S. Even if the bees resist the mites, Wellemeyer explained, exposure creates stress in the population, leaving the bees vulnerable to latent viral infections.
“The days of being a bee ‘haver’ are over,” he said. “Now you must be a bee ‘keeper’,” actively caring for the hives and their bees. Wellemeyer believes that the mites may be helping to control the spread of the highly prolific and nastytempered wild Africanized honeybees migrating north from South America.
The mild-mannered European honeybee first came to the New World with Virginia colonists. “The Indians could tell whites were (moving into their territories) because they could see bees in the forests,” said Wellemeyer. “The Indian languages don’t have words for bees, wax, or honey.”
Of the estimated 2,500 to 3,000 bee keepers in Virginia today, the majority are hobbyists with one to 20 colonies.
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