Honeydew: Can the willow aphid save a bad year?

[StephenB]

Good to hear the comment about the willow aphid. How do you find extracting the cement honey? Also, what about the damage to the willows? Spoiling of sheep wool? Sorry - another thread.

Its not the aphid you need to worry about killing the willows its the councils
They are spraying anything that looks like a willow under some daft idea they need to be replaced with native trees. If you keep an eye out on your travels you will see large areas of dead willows councils have sprayed out The lakes by Ohaupo are good example

Dont have concrete its just rather grainy

 

[JohnF]

Perhaps you have a low amount in the honey Stephen - I believe others struggle to extract it at all, without excessive heating.
I wonder whether blackened and withered willows (from sooty mould from aphid feeding) are being thought of as dead and being sprayed?

 

[Bron]

We used to have a significant amount of willow dew in our later extracted honey. Haven’t seen it in the comb in any quantity for about 4 years now. We tried to extract some as what we thought was bonus late honey one year and it was a total disaster. Climbed up the spinner and kept climbing, didn’t spin, didn’t strain, nasty!

If 2/3 of it is usable by the bees (cant remember where I read that now) then it’s gotta have some value.
We’ve seen some blackened willows recover, and others just have branches die out.