Honeybees, specifically Apis mellifera L., are highly efficient foragers on numerous flowering plants, including agricultural crops, that host phytophagous insect pests. Because honeybees are captive populations and because of their access to flowering plants, they can provide an economical and non-intrusive means of conveying biocontrol agents against pest species. The present invention is a honeybee hive-compatible device and associated housing for assisting honeybees in the dissemination of biocontrol agents for insects and other plant pests.
To be effective, biocontrol agents, like conventional pesticides, must be critically timed, uniformly distributed, and available in appropriate dosage to the targeted host species. Unlike conventional chemical pesticides, which are generally toxic, many biocontrol agents are host specific or attack a narrow range of hosts. Furthermore, with the declining arsenal of chemical pesticides, and the renewed national interest in air and ground water quality there is a need for effective biocontrol agents as well as a means for disseminating the agent. Biocontrol agents can be conveyed into the agroecosystem by a variety of non-conventional methods including autodissemination (Gard & Falcon 1978, Ali et al. 1987, Elmore et al. 1964, Ham et al. 1974), predators (Abbas 1988, Young et al. 1985, King et al. 1988), parasites (Young et al. 1989a, b; Brown et al. 1989), insectivorous birds (VYas et al. 1988), honeybees (Childress et al. 1987), blown dust (Olofsson 1988), and others. Of the nonconventional conveyances, only honeybees, A. mellifera, provide a readily available vector whose colonies can be easily manipulated and transported. Furthermore, honeybee foraging areas, to a large extent, can be managed by man.
There are known devices mounted on the opening of beehives which direct bees in and out of the hive. Such devices also include structures for collecting pollen from a bee or for surface-contaminating a bee with live pollen for dissemination outside the hive.
For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 4,594,744 ('744) discloses a hive entrance modifier forming a single downwardly sloping ramp used by both incoming and outgoing bees. Pollen is poured into the funnel-shaped region formed by the ramp and is picked up by bees coming and going. The disadvantage of the device is that bees not only disseminate pollen outside the hive onto targeted agricultural crops, but carry the valuable pollen inside the hive, such that a large percentage of the pollen never reaches it's intended target. A similar device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,371,360 ('360) and has the same disadvantage.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,435,951 discloses a device positioned in the opening of a beehive that includes a pollen chamber. The chamber is remote from the exit opening of the device requiring not only an intricate passageway but possible loss of pollen prior to the bees exiting the hive. A similar device is disclosed in United Kingdom Patent No. 1,470,385 and has the dame disadvantage.
The present invention provides a safe, simple, cost effective, alternative strategy for conveying biocontrol agents to specific targeted sites which is different from the enpollinating prior art devices.