One reason the Solomon Islands is a good place to keep honeybees is that there are not very many serious honeybee pests and diseases here. However, there are some and if the beekeeper does not notice them or does not do anything about them, they can hurt the hive. This may lower the amount of honey that the hive will produce or it may destroy the colony.

The best way to prevent a pest or disease from becoming a problem is to know your beehives. You must check them regularly. Remember to keep good records. This way you will know when you have a problem. If you know what a strong and healthy hive looks like, you will also know what a colony looks like when it has a disease or pest problem. Check your hives once every one to two weeks. Write down what you see.

The second most important thing is to keep your hives strong. A strong hive can resist most pests and diseases. A weak hive cannot fight off a pest or disease. It will just get weaker.

The third rule is to prevent problems. Don’t wait until you have a problem. There are many things you can do to prevent a pest or a disease from hurting your colonies.

The last thing is to act quickly when you do have a pest or disease problem. Don’t wait or it will just get worse.

1. Know your hives. Check them regularly. Keep notes.
2. Keep your hives strong.
3. Prevent the problem before it happens.
4. Solve the problem quickly. Don’t wait.

Frogs:  (Cane Toads), Bufo marinus

These frogs are native to Central and South America. They were introduced to the Pacific region to control sugar cane beetles, and to the Solomon Islands to control snakes.  They spread quickly. They seem to eat everything except cane beetles.  They can eat as many as 200 honeybees every day.  You will find these frogs around beehives almost everywhere in the Solomon Islands. They will be eating the bees as they come and go from the hives.  The stings do not seem to bother the frogs. The bees have no defence.  The best way to prevent frogs from doing too much damage is to put your hives on hive stands. Then the frogs cannot reach them.  Raising your hives about ½ to 1 metre off of the ground seems to work well.  If the hive stand is too low, the frogs will still be able to reach the bees.  If it is too high, the beekeeper will not be able to reach his bees.  Killing or moving the frogs will work but only for a short time.  Very quickly more frogs will move into the area.  Some beekeepers use chicken wire to make a frog fence around their bees.

Do not to put hive equipment - lids, boxes, frames - on the ground when working with your bees. Put the equipment on the hive stand. (You should build your hive stand much bigger than you need so you have room to work.) It is also a good idea to hold frames over the hive when you are checking them. Any bees that fall off, especially the queen, will fall back into the hive and not into the waiting mouths of the frogs.

Greater and Lesser Wax Moth: (Galleria mellona and Achroia grisella)

Wax moths don’t hurt honeybees, but they can still be very serious pests. They destroy the wax comb and cause your colony to abscond (run away).  Wax moths will fly into weak, poorly defended hives. They will lay eggs.  These eggs will then hatch into larvae (white worms). The larvae eat the wax comb. Then they spin cocoons, covering the partly eaten comb with threads that look like a spider web.  They then develop into pupae just like honeybees.  When they emerge as adult moths they mate and lay more eggs. 

Wax foundation is very expensive.  Bees need to eat a lot of honey to make beeswax.  So wax moths cost the beekeeper money in two ways.  1. The cost of buying new wax foundation.  2. The loss of honey that the bees must eat so they can make new wax. This can make the difference between a business that makes money and one that loses money.

How to protect your wax from wax moths:

1. Keep your hives strong: The best way to stop wax moth from becoming a problem is to keep your hives strong. A strong hive will have enough guard or security bees to keep the wax moth from coming into the hive to lay eggs. If the moth does get into the hive, a strong colony will have enough “house bees” (cleaners) to remove the wax moth eggs and larva. Do not transfer a nuc into a large box until it is strong and bees and brood are covering all 4 frames.
2. Don’t give too much room: When a hive is not strong, do not give them too many empty frames of wax to look after. A nuc, for example that has been transferred to a 10 frame box will not have enough bees to protect the six new frames that are given. Give the hive one or two new frames of wax at a time, and wait a for the bees to cover the new frames before you add more. You can also use a follower board (Topic 13), frame with Masonite or timber instead of wax as a wall until your nuc has grown.
3. Reduce the entrance: If your hive is weak, you can reduce the size of the entrance so that the guard bees can defend it easier. You can do this by putting a small piece of timber in the entrance to make it smaller. (This will also help keep the Asian bee from getting into your hives.)
4. Don’t add the honey box too soon: Wait until your brood box has at least 8 or 9 frames covered with bees or brood, before you add the honey box. This way there will be enough bees to keep the wax moth out of the honey box.
5. Keep your equipment and bee yard clean:
6. Don’t leave old frames, wax or equipment laying
7. around. Melt down any old wax comb. Burn old,
8. unwanted equipment. Clean the bases of your hives
9. regularly. Scrape any debris or rubbish off of the
10. base with your hive tool.
11. Store your frames of wax carefully: You can store your boxes of empty frames of wax on top of a strong hive. Remove the lid from a strong hive. Place a rice bag or inner cover on top of the hive, with a hole the size of a betel nut cut in it. Put your boxes of wax on top of this and then cover with another rice bag, or inner cover, and the lid. Some bees from the strong colony will go through the hole and patrol the empty boxes keeping the wax moth out. Another way to store your boxes of good frames of wax is to cover each box with newspaper, and stack them so wax moths cannot get in. Check this equipment regularly.
12. Wrap your pieces of wax foundation in newspaper for storage: Don’t put foundation into the frames until you are ready to put these frames in your hives.

Ants and Termites:

There are many different species of ants that can bother your bees. White ants or termites can eat your wooden boxes and frames. Some kinds of ants will eat the honey and pollen stored in the hive. Others, like the large red ant (Oecaphyla) will actually attack and kill the bees themselves. A strong hive will usually be able to defend itself. Sometimes even a strong hive will abscond (run away) if the problem is serious.

How to protect your hives from ants:

• Place your beehives where there are no ants
• Put your hives on hive stands
• Put grease or oil on the legs of the hive stand so that the ants cannot climb up.
• Paint the outside of the base, box, and lid to slow down the termites (white ants). White ants like to start eating your boxes on the edges so when you see them scrape them off with your hive tool.
• Replace and burn any equipment that white ants have made a home in.
• Keep the bee yard well brushed and clear of rubbish
• Check your hives regularly so you notice if you have an ant problem.
• Destroy the ant colony

Remember that honeybees are insects also and will be hurt by any chemical insecticide, or poison that you use on the ants.

Varroa Mites: (Varroa jacobsoni)

Varroa mites are tiny parasitic mites about the size of a flea. They live on the body of a honeybee. They feed on the bee’s body fluids. There are at least two different species of Varroa mite, one of which is far more serious than the other.  The less serious one, Varroa jacobsoni, was discovered on Guadalcanal and Savo in March of 2003.  It is believed that this parasite came to the Solomon Islands on the back of another visitor, the Asiatic Hive Bee. It may have come by ship from Papua New Guinea or Indonesia.

At the time of this writing, Varroa mites have been found on Guadalcanal, Savo, Nggela, Makira and in Munda and Seghe. The Ministry of Agriculture has put a quarantine in place.  This means that you must not move any honeybees or equipment from one province to another without first contacting the Ministry of Agriculture (MAL).  The MAL can tell you if you can move bees and equipment.  It is hoped that this quarantine will stop this mite from spreading to the rest of the Solomon Islands.

The good news is that the species of mite (Varroa jacobsoni) that we have in the Solomon Islands does not disturb European honeybees too much.  The mite cannot reproduce when it lives on the European Honeybee so it cannot live in a beehive for very long.

The bad news is that when you see this mite on your honeybees it means that the Asian Bee is close by. The mite spreads from the Asian Bee to the European by jumping off of an Asian bee onto a flower. It waits for another bee to come along. Then it jumps onto it.  Sometimes Asian Bees will go inside a European beehive to steal honey. Then the mites will jump off into the hive, and jump back on a European bee.

One way to check for mites is to look on the backs of your bees for a small reddish brown spot that moves.  Another way is open up some capped drone brood and pull out the white pupae.  Look for small reddish brown spots on the white larva.  Another way is to put some bees in a jar with some alcohol.  The mites and the bees will die and the mites will float off of the bees and can be seen.  If you see any small reddish brown creatures on the backs of your bees or on the brood, or if your bees are becoming weak and you do not know why, you should report this to the Ministry of Agriculture.

Asian Bee: (Apis cerana)

This bee has arrived only recently in the Solomon Islands. It has been seen on Guadalcanal, Savo, Nggela, Makira and in Munda. There are more and more Asian bee colonies on Guadalcanal and Savo, and fewer colonies of European bees.  Some people think that the Asian bee is out competing the European bee.  It is taking most of the nectar and pollen from the flowers.  Some beekeepers have seen the Asian bees going into the beehives of European honeybees and stealing honey.  When the European bees die, the Asian bee sometimes moves into the hive.  The Asian bee seems to like to live in nuc boxes, and many colonies are living in the walls of timber houses.

Almost every European bee colony around Honiara and on Savo has died. The empty beehives have all been invaded by wax moth and the wax destroyed. In some cases Asian bees have moved into the empty hive.

Some beekeepers are wondering if they should be trying to keep and manage this new bee. In many countries in Asia, it is this Asian bee that beekeepers keep. The type of Asian bee that has come to the Solomon Islands is called the Java strain, from Java, Indonesia. This strain of bee is difficult to keep for many reasons. The first reason is that this bee does not make very much honey. It does not grow to be a large strong colony like the European bee. When the Asian colony is big enough to cover about 4 frames in a nuc box, it swarms. The Asian bee is also more defensive than the European bee. They get cross very easily. This bee is difficult to manage.

The quarantine that was started to keep the Varroa mite from spreading will hopefully also keep this Asiatic bee from spreading to the rest of the Solomon Islands. Beekeepers should not move any bees from Guadalcanal, Savo or Nggela to another province. If anyone sees bees on a ship, they should tell the closest Ministry of Agriculture officer. If the bees are the Asian bee, they can be destroyed before they spread to other provinces. Some research has been started on the Solomon Islands to see if anything can be done to help the European bee survive. Some things have been learned from this research.

1. Making the entrance to the hive smaller helps the guard or security bees keep the Asian bees from stealing honey. A piece of small timber can be put between the brood box and the base to make the entrance smaller. This may cause a problem when the colony is strong and many bees are trying to fly in and out at the same time.
2. When you are working with bees, and the hive is open, it is a good idea to use a hive blanket to cover the frames so the Asian bees don’t fly in to steal honey.
3. Using smoke makes Asian bees cross. Using water spray makes them quiet.
4. Feeding European bees sugar and water helps them get enough food so the colony won’t die. Beekeepers should not feed their bees if the bees are making honey themselves.

Research is needed to find out how to keep European bees in the same place where Asian bees are living.

Blister Beetle: A small black or brown beetle that feeds on pollen in the hive. This beetle is common but not in large numbers. It does not seem to be a serious pest.

Cockroach: Sometimes seen under the lid or inside weak beehives. They don’t seem to harm the honeybees. They feed on wax, hive debris, or rubbish.

Geckos: You often see geckos under the lids or on beehives. They sometimes eat honeybees, but do not seem to be a problem. It could be they help honeybees by eating wax moths or other insects around the hive.

Livestock: Pigs, goats and cows can be pests of honeybees as they may disturb the hives, and knock them over. Bees that are being bothered by livestock are usually cross. A fence around the beehives to keep the livestock out is the best solution to this problem.

People: People can sometimes be a pest of honeybees also. Some people disturb bees and try to spoil them. This is one reason to keep your bees close to where you live.