Disinfecting EFB hives?

[Ivan]

Could EFB spores in the hivebody/inercover/botomboard be killed by heating it in the oven? What temperature?
What other method i could use  to disinfect desiesed or posibly desiesed hives?
Thanks!
Ivan

[buzzbee]

EFB is a bacteria unlike afb which requires excessive heat to remove. Here is what Michael Bush has written:
http://www.bushfarms.com/beespests.htm#efb

[Michael Bush]

EFB (Melissococcus pluton) is NOT a spore forming bacteria.  AFB (Paenibacillus larvae) is.  Requeening usually gets rid of EFB.  A break in the brood cycle usually gets rid of EFB.  There is really no need to disinfect.

AFB, of course is whole different animal.  Literally.  :)

[Ivan]

I got some hives from my friend before hi died. He has not looked in them for over a year and some had EFB but not any more. If i use honey supers from them could my hives get EFB?
Thanks for the replys!
Ivan

[Michael Bush]

I believe EFB has to have brood to live in.  Once the hive is dead the EFB (Melissococcus pluton) is dead.

Unlike AFB which has spores that live pretty much forever.

[Ivan]

Thanks for the help! :)

[Kev]

EFB isn't spore forming but AFB is. And some research shows that it can be killed by heating in an oven. I'll post this article. After a talk with a friend who burned all of an entire hive with a couple of supers because of AFB, I went looking for studies on AFB disinfection. Here's one I turned up.

http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1365-2672.2005.02686.x

The short of the article is that scorching with a torch may not be enough to get the AFB Spores, but an oven for several hours would do the trick. They also mention that chemical disinfection might work well on synthetic hives although they show no proof.

Kev

[tig]

i was told that the only sure way to get rid of AFB spores would be by irradiation. torching doesn't seem to be effective enough.

[Michael Bush]

>torching doesn't seem to be effective enough.

I've read torching is very effective as is clorox bleach, boiling in paraffin and boiling in lye.  There are also fumigation chambers that use other chemicals.

[buzzbee]

In torching be very careful not to overlook the corners. I think you are supposed to torch until the wood starts to scorch on the inside of the boxes. As far as the frames I'd pitch them unless your set up for dipping treatments.

[Brian D. Bray]

To get completely rid of AFB spores it is best to disassemble the hive body.  Not doing so can leave live spores in the corner crevices which re-infects the hive.  I've seen it happen more than once.