yesbut 6,085 Posted June 8 Venom shortage hampering treatment..... Bee venom shortage leaves anaphylactic Kiwis unable get life-saving treatments | Stuff.co.nz WWW.STUFF.CO.NZ Bee venom is used to help treat Kiwis with deadly allergies, but there's a major shortage. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
yesbut 6,085 Posted June 8 Is venom produced commercially here or is it imported ? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tristan 4,220 Posted June 8 i know some of it is certainly produced here. we trailed it a bit, but the crowd we dealt with was a bunch of rip offs so we never went further with it. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
olbe 221 Posted June 8 @yesbut, haven't you seen the latest tv ad with bees, you milk the venom VERY carefully 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Maru Hoani 477 Posted June 8 I was keen to get into it but couldn't even find a buyer Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Stoney 1,363 Posted June 8 My boy is a couple of yrs into the bee sting desensitisation program, his doctor tells me the venom they use is imported from America... there was a shortage last year, due to wasp venom being sent instead of bee venom. luckily didn’t effect us, but sheesh. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
NickWallingford 131 Posted June 8 I remember a beekeeper saying something to me some years back that he sure enjoyed the money from selling venom, but said the collection was sheer hell. It involved a thin latex (?) layer, with criss-crossed series of wires below. Voltage to the wires, and the bees would stick their stinger into the latex. Inject poison. And hopefully withdraw to live another day. But the alarm pheromones made the whole apiary a difficult place to be during the collection... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
yesbut 6,085 Posted June 9 (edited) The system I've read about is a metal plate that is periodically livened, they all sting that on reflex, the drops of venom then dry & are scraped off. That would be easy to arrange remotely at hive entrances... Edited June 9 by yesbut Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
NickWallingford 131 Posted June 9 I don't have a great sense of smell. (That's not the same thing as saying that I don't smell good.) But that cutting, sharp smell of lots of alarm pheromone in the air has always been sort of offensive to me. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
