# Mite Monitor Workshop No 1

Attendees:
* Gertje Petersen - AbacusBio/FutureBees
* Martin Laas
* Helena Newenham - AbacusBio/FutureBees
* Matthew Goldsworthy
* Craig Barrie
* Barry Hantz
* Rae Butler
* Serge Ohrimenko
* Greg Barnaby
* Nick Taylor
* Irene

## Some general notes
The MiteCheck app in the USA is a similar tool currently available, but it appears hobbyist focussed. Our aim is to develop a tool for commercial beekeepers in NZ which can also help hobbyists, not the other way around.
Important to keep in mind: Mite Monitor is intended as a management tool, not a research tool.

If it does not work for the beekeepers, we need to change our approach. - Please talk to Gertje/Rae/Martin if you have any concerns!

### The Vision for the future (beyond the scope of this year (and budget))
Existing software (freeware, so we can build on it) out there can give us much of the functionality that we want:
* Interactive Covid19 Maps for different countries already exist, they could be adapted for New Zealand and filled with mite data instead (e.g. https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/us-map for a map with information on relatively small areas, and https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/diseases/2019-novel-coronavirus-infection.html?topic=tilelink#a1 for a map that allows you to look at historic development)
* Mite population growth modelling software is part of BEEHAVE (http://beehave-model.net/).

With these tools, we could potentially build a software that can help beekeepers not only understand the current situation around them, but also predict what will happen based on their own data.

However, we need to know
* how much information is enough,
* what can beekeepers expect in terms of return on investment for mite monitoring and
* we need more detailed insights into the mite population than we currently have.

These are the **short-term goals of the Mite Monitor project**.

### Long-term Goals
* Procuring co-funding to finance full development of a national interactive mite recording and "alert" system
* need to understand economics to know what *varroa* is actually costing the industry and what we (as an industry) could afford to invest in this
* need to understand what the data requirements are (thus the short-term goals)
* Synchronising treatment times should be one of the long-term goals, especially with smaller operators and hobbyists.
* Currently, there are large windows in purchase patterns for mite treatments (up to 5 months within the same region)
* Commercial operators seem to have a more similar schedule than hobbyists
* Understand the impact that *varroa* resistance-focused queen breeders and organic beekeepers have on mite levels (vs e.g. hobbyists)
* Help those that *need* to stay treatment-free do so without having to go through increased scrutiny from neighbours (and help everyone understand where mites are coming from and why)
* Understand if there are miticide-resistance issues in the country (rather than PPB-issues with treatments not being left in for long enough / not used at the full dose)

### Economic losses caused by Varroa infestation
* The loss due to Varroa can be divided into three factors
* Treatment costs (direct and indirect = labour)
* Making up for lost colonies (cost of splits + lost opportunity cost in weakened donors (honey))
* lost opportunity in dead colonies (honey)
* potentially higher *varroa*-induced losses on pollination than honey (especially in carrots)?

### Sampling Schedule
* **Sample 1 - Pre-treatment coming out of winter (July/August)**
* July/August sampling seems generally agreed to be the easiest to do
* Should be done in the wintering site to inform what happened over winter (e.g. re-invasion)
* August might be more feasible, as commercial beekeeping staff might not be back until then
* **Sample 2 - Post-treatment in spring (November)**
* Might have to be October to work into the spring/summer workload ramping up.
* **Sample 3 - Pre-treatment around harvest**
* Some support is available in dealing with this sample, since it will be a busy time.
* **Sample 4 - Post-treatment before winter**
* Should be done in the wintering site

* Timing will be slightly different for each beekeeper because of different treatment times.

### Sampling numbers
* all thinking around this should be risk-based: What level of loss are beekeepers willing to accept?
* _Are you okay with the thought of missing a 20% infestation rate and walking away from your hives without treating them? What about 50%?_
* The larger the site, the higher the risk factor _(20% of 500 hives is a lot, 20% of 20 hives is not)_
* Willingness to invest time for sampling will change the more hives are at risk
* in the 500 hives, sampling 20 hives does not seem like a big investment, and will mean that most levels of infestation are picked up
* in the 20 hives, sampling 20 hives is a lot comparatively, the reward is smaller (less overall hives to save)
* 4 hives sampled per site is really the minimum, independent of the No of hives in the site
* More is always better!
* _Note that most sites in the initial group are likely to be between 2 and 40 hives_

### Mite Monitor - Next Steps
* Gertje to calculate the ideal number of sites to sample from for each operation and contact people with the number and the sampling / evaluation protocol
* Every Mite Monitor partner to consider how many sites they could possibly sample from (in terms of labour costs etc.)
* "Ideal" sample proportions might be unrealistically large, but we will have a starting point to get to an agreement
* Martin to share Midlands mite sampling / processing protocol with group
* Martin to video the process to show people how the Midlands system works

Once we have agreed on a number of apiary sites to be sampled for each operation, we will need a **list of the sites with GPS location** and a name (or MAF ID) for each site. This will allow us to pre-load them into the data collection form the partners receive according the the sampling schedule.

*Note that ideally, everyone does their own sampling and processing, but there are some project resources available to help beekeepers carry out this work. Rae and / or Martin are available to help out.*

***The follow-up email will be sent out during the week of 1st - 5th of June.***