FI120379B - Live for hops used as pollinating insects and method for using hops as pollinating insects in fruit or berry cultivation - Google Patents

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a nest for pollinating bumble bees, comprising 5 rectangular nesting boxes and a sliding roof, a nesting box and a nesting box the lower end has vents.

The invention also relates to a method of using bumblebees as pollinator insects in fruit and berry cultivation.

Bumble bees (Bombus sp.) Are important pollinator insects in horticulture. Particularly in the greenhouse cultivation of tomatoes and strawberries, the pollinating properties of bumblebees have been exploited, but pollinators are also needed, for example, in the open growing of berries and fruits.

Bumblebees have been produced for commercial pollination for decades. Previously, Finland has not had its own production of bumble bees, but bivalve nest societies and their nest structures have been supplied from abroad. These nest structures are of the disposable-20 type that are intended to be disposed of after use, i.e., have a life of about 1-2 months. The farm will then have to buy a new nest society with its nest structures.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a bumblebee nest that can be used multiple times so that a new bumblebee nest society can be re-introduced and re-transplanted to an already used nest after careful cleaning. It is another object of the invention to provide a method which results in the optimal utilization of the above-mentioned Kimaica nests in greenhouse cultivation or in open field cultivation.

30 These objectives are achieved by the introduction of a casing according to the preamble, characterized in that the casing and the roof are made of wood, preferably water plywood, the roof being dimensioned so as to extend over the side walls and form a protective lip above the vents a feeding pan covering the entire bottom area, preferably covered with a cardboard midsole, through which a vertical plastic tube filled with a foamy fibrous material extending to the bottom of the feeding tank is led through the midsole, into which the with a pollen ball and housing cells, other fetal cells, or an artificial 5 cell. Water plywood is recommended because it is easy to clean and withstands both rainwater and greenhouse humid air and rainwater, so that the nesting structure is preserved for many years and can bring a new bumblebee community to grow again and again. A protective cap on the roof prevents rainwater or rainwater from entering through the vents. Cardboard material has been selected for the midsole and edged substrate, which has proved to be suitable for this purpose in practice, since the bumblebee queen accepts cardboard as its substrate material, while the cardboard absorbs, for example, bumble bee stools, so that the body surfaces remain dry. From pollen, the bumble bees get nourishment for themselves and their larvae as well as building material when building new cells.

15

The apertures of the nest are preferably 15 mm in diameter so that bumble bees can pass through them. One of the vents serves as the entrance for the bumble bees and the other as both the exit and the entrance. Preferably, an airplane is provided below the vents for landing and taking off the bumble bees. The inlet 20, in accordance with one embodiment, is provided with a tube extending in the middle of the interior of the housing to extend the opening to form a long inlet channel.

A movable wax cover made of plastic or wire mesh, which is sized so that the bumblebees can push it out of the way through the opening, is preferably installed in front of each air port, but the weaker wax, which is a bad bumble bee, does not dare to push it. from getting laid in a bumblebee nest.

The vents are preferably located in the upper half of the body front wall so that there is sufficient space in the lower body 30 for new cell construction.

The vents in the housing are about 10 mm in diameter and covered with a screen. According to one embodiment, there are three parallel vents at the top of the front wall of the housing and one vent at the bottom of the two opposite side walls of the housing.

At the top of the nest is a removably mounted clear plexiglass intermediate lid, which allows you to check the condition and well-being of the nest society without disturbing the bumblebees.

According to a preferred embodiment, the feeding container is provided with a supply hose from the outside of the housing, for example through an opening in the rear wall of the housing, by means of which 10 additional sugar solutions can be fed into the feeding container. To monitor the amount of sugar solution in the feeding tank, a measuring glass may be mounted on the outer wall of the housing arranged to indicate the height of the sugar solution surface. The vertical plastic tube extending through the midsole to the feeding container is preferably filled with a cotton wool through which the sugar solution is absorbed as a capillary suction so that the bumble bees can access the sugar solution at the upper end of the plastic tube. Other absorbent material may be used instead of the swab.

It is also possible to place unpurified cotton buds or flocks in the bumblebee nest to insulate the bumble bees.

20

When supplying a permanent nest according to the invention to a customer, i.e. a gardener or a greenhouse farmer, the nest will usually contain one or more kingfisher bumble bees and, in addition to kings, about 4 newly hatched bumblebee workers. Alternatively, there may be about 4 newly hatched young honey bee workers (Apis mellifera) or several Kima-25 lazy dogs in the nest. A pollen ball is mounted on a cardboard-lined base of a nest for feeding bumble bees and their larvae. In addition, frozen casing cells, live embryonic cells, or an artificial cell may be placed on the substrate without peeling. Bumblebees also use pollen as a building material for new cells. The feeding container of the nest contains a sugar solution having a sugar concentration of 7/10, preferably containing an anti-fermentant, e.g. 30 sodium benzoate. Depending on the customer's order, the number of labored bumble bees in a nest can be up to 100 individuals. Dogs can also be involved in the start-up phase of a new society, which, like initially introduced bumble bee and honey bee workers, is usually removed from the nest when new enclosures have arrived.

4

Bumble bees collected from Finnish wildlife can be used as nesting bumble bees. At least the cone manganese (Bombus terrestris), the manor house (Bombus hypnorum) and the rock house (Bombus lapidarius) are suitable for breeding.

The process of the invention for continuous growth of pollinating bumblebees in closed plant production, i.e. a greenhouse, is characterized by the simultaneous use of three permanent nesting boxes, one of which has a starter nest containing a queen / queen or a newborn bumblebee or mellifera) and possibly a few bumble bees, which initially added bumblebees, honey bee workers and bumble bees are usually removed from the nest when new enclosure cells have developed, which in about four weeks grow into a production nest, another nest box has a breeding nest, 60 to 200 labored bumble bees, and the third nest box has a receding nest, which is in decline from the production phase, with 15 multiple dogs and queens.

The receding nest yields a queen (s) and a few workers and / or possibly a few dogs to be inoculated into a new starting nest after careful cleaning and changing the midsole and the edged cardboard tray.

Bumblebees produce poor working bumblebees if the same breeding line is continued for too long with related bumblebees. This is why durable washes need to ensure that new genetic material comes into society often enough. This can be accomplished, for example, by taking only a queen from a receding nest and taking a few males from another nest to be transplanted into a new starting nest into a receding nest box after this thorough cleaning and replacement of the cardboard parts. In order for the queen to consent to mating, she needs light. This can be accomplished, for example, by leaving the roof of the permanent cage open and illuminating the interior of the cage through plexiglass or Kun-30 gatari and keeping the dog in a separate space with mild or transparent walls for mating to allow light. Queen improve egg laying queen flush with carbon dioxide to about one day after spawning, so when the carbon dioxide treatment takes about 30 minutes and is repeated after two and a half hours.

5 5

Thus, according to the invention, in closed crop production, i.e. in greenhouse cultivation, pollinating bumblebees can be produced by continuous cultivation without the need to obtain a new nest every month.

The method of the invention for the use of pollinating bumblebees in the open-field cultivation of berry and fruit plants is characterized by relying on individual nesting boxes housed in permanent nest boxes to be delivered in the spring with a "nest root" or queen or other. . The nest root can be supplied in a separate small starter nest, which also nourishes the nest root until it is transferred to the actual perennial nest.

In the fall, once the nest has ceased operations, the permanent nest will be thoroughly cleaned and preserved for re-use the following spring. The bumble bee queens born in the nest overwinter in the litter and excavate holes and form wildlife habitats in the area to complement wildlife.

The invention will now be described in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawing, in which

Fig. 1 is a side elevational view of an example of a bumblebee nest according to the invention, Fig. 2 is a front elevational view of the bumblebee nest of Fig. 1,

Fig. 3 is a top view of a bumblebee nest after removal of the roof,

Fig. 4 shows an example of a side wax cover mounted in front of a bumble bee vent and

Fig. 5 is a front view of a wax guard mounted in front of both vents of the bumblebee nest.

6

The bumble bee housing according to the invention has a rectangular base 1 with water plywood, a rectangular front wall 2 and a rear wall 4 and two side walls 3, 5 and a rectangular opening roof 6 which is dimensioned so as to extend over the housing walls 6 above the housing front page 2 with two adjacent circular vents 7a and 7b for bumblebees. One air outlet 7a serves as an inlet and the other air outlet 7b serves as both an outlet and an inlet. The openings 7a, 7b preferably have a diameter of about 15 mm so that the bumble bees can pass through them. Below the flight apertures 7a, 7b is provided a flight board 8 on which the bumble bees can descend upon their arrival in the bumblebee nest and from which they can take off upon departure from the nest.

The nest has a clear plexiglass intermediate lid 9 through which the wellness of the bumble bee in the nest can be viewed when the roof 6 is opened. At the bottom of the nest 1 is a Kima-15 feeding container for 10 sugar solutions. Preferably, said feeding container 10 is covered by a cardboard midsole 11. From the outside of the housing, a feeding tube 12 is led to this feeding container 10, for example through a hole made in the rear wall 4 of the housing. Through this feed hose 12, new sugar solution is introduced into the feed container 10 as needed. In the hole in the intermediate bottom 11 is mounted a vertical plastic tube 13, which extends down into the sugar solution in the food tank 10. Preferably, said tube 13 is plastic and filled with a cotton swab designed to absorb the sugar solution contained in the feeding container so that the bumblebees entering the upper end of the tube are able to absorb the cotton solution when feeding. On the midsole 11 is mounted a low-edged cardboard tray 14 on which is mounted a pollen 15 for feeding bumblebees, as well as housing cells 25 or other fetal cells 16 or an artificial cell on which the queen can lay eggs. For ventilation of the permanent housing, there are, for example, ventilation apertures 17 covered by a screen in the upper part of the front wall 2 and in the lower parts of the side walls 3, 5.

An extension 7 of the inlet opening 7a serving as the inlet housing is connected to a tube 7 which extends to the center area of the inlet housing to form an inlet channel. There is no such tube in the second opening 7b, which serves as both an exit and an entrance. In front of both vents 7a, 7b there is optionally mounted a wax cover 18, which may be a plastic or metal mesh flap that is movably secured so that the bumblebee is able to push the flap out of its way through the air port 7a, 7b but the wax can not push the flap.

Figures 4 and 5 show an example of how a wax guard 18 can be mounted. In the embodiment 5 shown, the wax cover 18 consists of a plastic flap about 1.5 mm thick and movably secured in front of the flight opening 7a, 7b by two screws 19, each inserted through a vertically extending notch 20 in the plastic flap so that the plastic flap is movable vertically. 20, and somewhat horizontally, depending on the distance of the screw head 19 from the front wall 10 of the bumblebee nest 2. To prevent the wax from entering the gap between the bottom of the plastic flap 7a, 7b and the front wall 2, the bumblebee on both sides of the plastic flap. The plastic flaps are preferably dimensioned in width such that only one common retaining wall is required between the vents 7a and 7b, as shown in Figure 5. The upper ends of the retaining walls 15 can be joined by a horizontal shield 23. To allow the bumble bees to grip the plastic flap at its lower edge, a shallow gap of about 2 mm can be made 22. If the flap 18 is flap made of dense metal mesh, this gap is not required when entering or exiting flight opening 7a, 7b.

Claims (15)

A nest for pollinating bumble bees, comprising a rectangular nest box and a sliding roof (6) having one side wall (2) of the nest box having two 5 adjacent flight openings (7a, 7b) for the bumble bees and a top of the nest box side walls (2; 3, 5; respectively, at the lower end there are ventilation openings (17), characterized in that the box and the roof (6) are made of wood, preferably water plywood, the roof being dimensioned so that it extends over the side walls (2,3,4,5) and forms a protective lip ( 6a) above the vents (7a, 7b), that a feeding container (10) is placed inside the housing box (10) covering its base area (10), preferably covered with a cardboard midsole (11) through which the midsole (11) guiding a vertical plastic tube (13) extending to the bottom of the feeding container (10) filled with a bulky fibrous material into which the sugar solution contained in the feeding container (10) is absorbed and and that a low-edged cardboard tray (14) is mounted on the midsole (11), on which a spherical-15 dust ball (15) and enclosure cells (16), other embryonic cells or an artificial cell are placed. Housing according to Claim 1, characterized in that the openings (7a, 7b) have a diameter of 15 mm, whereby one of the openings (7a) serves as the entrance for the bumble bee and the other opening (7b) for both the outlet and the entrance. Nest according to Claim 2, characterized in that a flight board (8) is provided below the air vents (7a, 7b) for landing and taking off the bumble bees. Housing according to Claim 3, characterized in that a movable wax cover (18) of plastic or metal mesh is mounted in front of each opening (7a, 7b), which is dimensioned so that the bumblebee can lift it out of the way when opening the opening (7a, 7b). ) but the waxy can't move it. Housing according to Claim 2, characterized in that a pipe (7) terminating in the middle of the interior of the housing is installed in the opening (7a) acting as the inlet opening. Housing according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the vents (7a, 7b) are located in the upper half of the front wall (2). Housing according to Claim 1, characterized in that the ventilation openings (17) have a diameter of about 10 mm and are covered with a sieve screen. 5 Housing according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the upper end of the housing has an intermediate cover (9) in clear plexiglass. Housing according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that a feed hose (12) for the new sugar solution is introduced into the feeding container (10) from the outside of the housing, preferably through the opening in the rear wall (4). Housing according to claim 9, characterized in that a measuring glass is mounted on the outside wall of the housing to indicate the level of the sugar solution in the feeding tank (10). 15 Housing according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the porous material in the vertical plastic tube (13) extending into the feeding container (10) is a cotton ball. 12. A method for the continuous growth of pollinating bumble bees in a closed plant production, i.e. a greenhouse, characterized in that three permanent nest boxes are used simultaneously, one of which contains a starter nest with a queen / queen, or a newly hatched bumblebee ( Apis mellifera) and possibly a few bumble bee dogs that are initially added to bumblebees, honey bee workers and bumble bees are usually removed from the nest after developing new enclosure cells, which in about four weeks grow into a production nest, another nest box has a breeding nest, - 200 working bumble bees, and the third nest box has a receding nest with several dogs and queens, which is in decline. 30 A method according to claim 12, characterized in that the receding nest takes the queen (s) and workers and / or some dogs to be moved into a new starting nest after careful cleaning and replacement of the midsole (11) and the edged cardboard tray (14). A method according to claim 12, characterized in that only the queen is taken from the receding nest and a few males are taken from the second nest to be inoculated into a new starting nest in a recessive nest box, after careful cleaning and replacement of the cardboard parts. 15. A method of using pollinating bumblebees in the open-air berry and fruit crop, characterized by relying on individual nesting societies for permanent use nesting in which 'spring root', a few workers or a few dogs.