There are many diseases of honeybees found around the world. The Solomon Islands do not have very many of these diseases.  Some honeybee diseases can be found in honey. That is why you cannot bring honey, honeybees, or used beehives from another country into the Solomon Islands.  We do not want to bring these diseases to the Solomon Islands.

The diseases that are found here are not very serious.  They do not hurt humans.  The one important disease that is found in the Solomon Islands is called sac brood.  Sac brood is a virus disease that attacks and kills the honeybee larvae.  The shiny white skin of the larva turns into a brownish sac. If you make a hole in this sac, a liquid will come out.  The front of the larva turns up at the end like a canoe when the larva dies. This disease is usually not very serious.  It does not kill very many larvae.  If you have this disease, it might mean that your bees are weak or your queen is poor.  Re-queening (replacing the old queen with a young one) can sometimes stop this disease. Re-queening will be taught in Topic 14.

Other diseases that have been found in the Solomon Islands, but that are not too serious are: Nosema (diarrhoea), Kashmir Bee virus, and Black Queen Cell virus.  There are many other very serious honeybee diseases in the rest of the world.  They are not found in the Solomon Islands at this time.  This makes the Solomon Islands a good place to keep honeybees.

One good way to stop the spread of any honeybee disease is to keep your bee yard clean.

• Don’t leave old equipment or comb lying around.
• Melt the old wax down and store it so that bees cannot get into it.
• Clean your hive tool when you go to another location to work with bees. This way you won’t spread disease.
• Put your hive tool in your smoker and burn it to kill any diseases.
• When you are moving or shifting hives, make sure the bees cannot escape so that they will not spread any disease to other hives.
• If a hive dies, try to find out why.