Karge the beekeeper

BURNETT COUNTYâ€”Size matters in beekeeping, especially when it comes to deadly mites.

Tracheal mites often wreak devastation in a bee colony. To date, the mite, first found in the U.S. in 1984, has destroyed hundreds of thousands of beehives and cost beekeepers more millions in dollars.

Wisconsin beekeepers, like Kevin Karge of Falun, are not immune to the harm of tracheal mites. The life and death question is how to stop them. Beekeepers know chemical treatments are only mildly effective in combating these microscopic parasites.

Now Karge and other beekeepers across the nation are trying an alternative to killing the mites. Their novel approach is to simply shut them out.

"When I did some research, I found how resistant the bees were in eliminating the tracheal mites," said Karge. "That's what got me interested."

Tracheal mites attack bees by entering a small breathing space near the thorax. Once inside, they lay their eggs in the opening, blocking the bee's ability to breathe and spreading disease.

Karge is participating in an experiment of down-sizing bees. In this experiment, they are shrinking the bees instead of the kids.

The size of an average bee is 5.4 millimeters. But Karge and others are shrinking their bees to 4.9 millimeters. They accomplish this by growing their bees in small comb cells.

By shrinking the size of the whole bee, they are also shrinking the size of the bee's breathing space where the mites enter. "It's just small enough to keep the tracheal mite out," said Karge.

This method is another way of combating an agriculture problem without using poisonous chemicals.

"It sounds like a wonderful idea," said Jane Larson, Public Information Officer, Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection.

The state is uncertain how many beekeepers are experimenting with smaller bees. But "in theory it sounds like a great idea," Larson said. "I think it is something we will be watching."

Among national researchers, opinions vary on the effectiveness of small-sized bees combating tracheal mites.

"The consensus now is really mixed," said Kim Flottum, editor of Bee Culture magazine who is also a beekeeper. "There's a group of people who swear by it ... and there's a group of people who swear at it."

But from the scientist's point of view, "this is still pretty new," Flottum said. "It certainly looks like it may have some promise."