I have a bunch of fruit trees that are covered in fireblight. Fireblight is a bacteria that infects the tree through pollination. (You pollinate an infected tree and it infects every other tree that gets pollinated.) It first rots of the fruit and flower and then spreads down the limb. If you don't treat it immediately it will kill the tree and all surrounding trees. (It is extremely infectious) I lost a lot of trees to it last year around 10 and I have a lot more than that to lose. (around 100 and most of them got it.) Last year I managed to get the fire blight irradiated but know this year it is back. I was wondering if the bees were part of the problem. You see, bees store pollen. The pollen probably is infected and it would have been stored in the hive throughout the winter. So know that we have bee activity again I have fireblight again. It is not the bee's fault as all he has to do is touch the pollen and get the bacteria on him. Some more information, I am the only one with fruit trees in my area. I believe that includes the 3 mile radius that my bees can fly. So Im not getting it from other tree's. From my reaserch i think the only place for the firblight left to hid is in the hive. So what do i do. Can i get rid of the bee's pollen somehow? I can't loose all my trees to this. If i had to make a guess on how to do it i would move the bees to a clean new hive. Than I would powerwash everything off of the infected hive. I realise that would weaken the hive quite a bit to have to start completely over. Sadly i don't know of a better way
Suggestions?
Suggestions?