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 Roman Linhart told Reuters he had secured a patent for his
invention after 10 years of research into ways of wiping out
varroosis disease, which has been destroying bee colonies across the
world.
The stakes are high, as the death of bees threatens harvests which
rely on the insects for pollination.
The teacher at Chrudim's Secondary School of Agriculture, 120 km (75
miles) east from Prague, joins a line-up of experts who have been
trying to find an efficient way to tackle the condition for decades.
Experts from Czech Republic's Palacky University said they were
about to start trialing Linhart's method -- which aims to kill the
Varroa destructor parasite responsible for the disease by heating up
hives to 40 degrees Celsius (104 F) and higher.
"Scientific probes will be performed in the summer. Some beekeepers
have tested the method and it had the declared parameters," said
Professor Vitezslav Bicik, of the university's zoology department.
Bee keepers have tried using heat before. But their efforts have
been hampered by difficulties in powering the heating units in often
remote locations and making sure the bees themselves are not harmed
by the high temperatures.
Up to now they have often resorted to removing the entire population
before heating the hive, a tricky and time-consuming procedure.
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Linhart, a bee keeper himself, said he got round the problems by
using just the power of the sun for his thermosolar hive, and a
technique that heats the hive through the glass top for about two
hours.
According to the plans, the heat slowly builds up in black-painted
metal sheets inside the insulated hive, paralyzing, sterilizing and
eventually killing the mites but leaving the bees unharmed.
"With this, you can take 100 hives, or as many as you have, and work
simultaneously on all of them," Linhart said.
(Reporting by Robert Muller; Editing by Michael Roddy and Andrew
Heavens)
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