Dave Joneson: Hi, this is Dave Joneson from Wisconsin, and I'm at the Midwest Honey Bee Expo 2026.
Dave Joneson: Enjoy the Beekeeping Today podcast episode.
Jeff Ott: Welcome to Beekeeping Today Podcast presented by BetterBear.
Jeff Ott: Your source for beekeeping news, information, and entertainment.
Jeff Ott: I'm Jeff Ott.
Becky Masterman: And I'm Becky Masterman.
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Jeff Ott: Thank you, Dave Johnson from Wisconsin
Jeff Ott: for that opening.
Becky Masterman: The Midwest is really taking care of these listener openers, so fantastic.
Jeff Ott: We have so many from the Midwest Honey Bee Expo and and many more
Jeff Ott: yet to be heard from the North American Honey Bee Expo.
Jeff Ott: I think we're pretty good on on openers and one area we're kind of short on.
Jeff Ott: We need some new questions.
Becky Masterman: Ooh.
Becky Masterman: Interesting.
Jeff Ott: Listeners who are looking for the hive tool.
Jeff Ott: Today's question comes to us from an email from Rich Colvin.
Jeff Ott: I'm not going to read the entire question because he's pretty detailed in this question, but he really comes down to
Jeff Ott: asking if there's a preference for his Langstreth Hives, whether he should be using like a single deep, a double deep
Jeff Ott: or up to three mediums or using all mediums.
Jeff Ott: He prefers all mediums.
Jeff Ott: It kind of simplifies his frames, simplifies his boxes, just simplifies his operation, just to have one size.
Jeff Ott: Is he missing anything?
Jeff Ott: He would like to know if there's a preference or a better way of using these.
Becky Masterman: Interesting.
Becky Masterman: So he's looking at hype configuration and
Becky Masterman: Honestly, hype configuration depends upon the bees, the beekeeper, and and what you want to do to get them through winter.
Becky Masterman: But all three of those in most climates
Becky Masterman: you're going to have to feed your bees to get them into winter, which is fine.
Becky Masterman: That's not a big problem.
Becky Masterman: But if he does winter in a single deep, that's a little bit more intense.
Becky Masterman: because you want to make sure that that single deep has enough both feed and bees.
Becky Masterman: And he didn't mention, but I wouldn't try to winter an Italian
Becky Masterman: queen in a single deep.
Becky Masterman: All of those work really well.
Becky Masterman: The Italians will be fine in two deeps, but when you're going with a smaller configuration
Becky Masterman: I would want something like a carneolin or a Caucasian be so that they're good with small spaces and can use their reserves cautiously.
Jeff Ott: He does not mention what bee he's using.
Jeff Ott: He does mention he's in central Ohio.
Jeff Ott: Yeah, yeah.
Jeff Ott: It'd be hard to push an a Italian colony down into one deep or keep him in one deep.
Jeff Ott: through the season.
Becky Masterman: Well the that's the other thing too.
Becky Masterman: If if you're managing a single deep during swarm season, that you have to really, really work hard and make sure that depending upon the kind of
Becky Masterman: bee you kind of honey bee you have, they're not going to swarm on you.
Becky Masterman: So it takes a little bit more intense management.
Becky Masterman: But I do I like that single brood nest.
Becky Masterman: It's nice because then when you go to control mites you've got one brood nest instead of its spread
Becky Masterman: across.
Becky Masterman: And and he mentioned another thing that I like is using one size frame for everything.
Becky Masterman: So he said, you know, three mediums and then your supers, medium supers would match your brood nest.
Becky Masterman: And although you keep those frames separate from each other for contamination purposes, you you still have that ease of mixing and matching your equipment.
Becky Masterman: And that's that's always nice
Jeff Ott: What you've talked about doing in the past is that when you've perhaps you've used a honey uh frame enough, you can move it down
Jeff Ott: quickly to the brood and just leave it down there in the brood chamber just to keep your wax fresh down in the brood chamber.
Becky Masterman: But I haven't wintered much at all in mediums.
Becky Masterman: Is that something you've done, Jeff?
Jeff Ott: No, I've not.
Jeff Ott: I've grew up in the Midwest and everything was too deep and to this day I kind of maintain a too deep box.
Jeff Ott: I know Kim switched to all mediums.
Jeff Ott: and was using all mediums all along and he talked about he preferred that all the time.
Jeff Ott: You know, just easier to maintain.
Jeff Ott: It's lighter.
Jeff Ott: One piece one type of equipment he could use as boxers no matter where he needed to.
Jeff Ott: And the frames were interchangeable as long as he kept his wax separated, which he was really particular about.
Becky Masterman: Okay, okay.
Becky Masterman: Yeah.
Becky Masterman: But but I I don't see a problem as far as
Becky Masterman: what to do.
Becky Masterman: I think that what gets confusing is when you start to do like I I do some, like I'll do a deep and a medium for some of my winter configurations.
Becky Masterman: And
Becky Masterman: once you get through to spring, if you want to move frames around, you've got two different size frames.
Becky Masterman: You have to make sure you are aware of all where all your resources are.
Becky Masterman: So I I like the fact that he's thinking about it.
Becky Masterman: But honestly, it's whatever you like best.
Becky Masterman: And the other advantage that we didn't say out loud, but those medium supers are going to weigh less.
Becky Masterman: And so it's it's a little bit easier to move them around.
Becky Masterman: So yeah, I think I think it's a good question.
Becky Masterman: And did we just he gets a hive tool, right?
Becky Masterman: Even though we just said a bunch of stuff and didn't give him a firm answer.
Jeff Ott: Rich.
Jeff Ott: Rich will receive a hive tool.
Becky Masterman: We gave him some things to think about.
Jeff Ott: You can't go wrong, Rich.
Jeff Ott: There's no right or wrong way.
Jeff Ott: It's what you're used to and you manage your bees for that box appropriately.
Becky Masterman: You can go wrong if you put an Italian in a single deep.
Becky Masterman: I mean, for wintering, I wouldn't that wouldn't be my first choice.
Becky Masterman: But other that other than that he can't go wrong.
Jeff Ott: Well folks coming up today, we have two guests talking about a very topical topic.
Jeff Ott: Boy, am I redundant today.
Becky Masterman: It's okay.
Jeff Ott: So uh today's topic, it's in the news today.
Jeff Ott: the spotted lantern fly and we're talking two experts on spotted lantern fly at spotted lanternfly honey and they will be able to tell us the ups and downs about it.
Becky Masterman: I am really looking forward to this discussion because
Becky Masterman: It's it's really a special honey and and I bet beekeepers can do some great things with it.
Becky Masterman: I'm excited to learn more about it.
Jeff Ott: Very good.
Jeff Ott: Well coming up, we will be talking with Dr.
Jeff Ott: Robin Underwood and Dr.
Jeff Ott: Ferrat Osterk.
Jeff Ott: I'll have to ask him how he says his name, and we'll be talking to them right after these
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Jeff Ott: Hey everybody, welcome back, sitting around the great big virtual beekeeping today podcast interview table.
Jeff Ott: We have Dr.
Jeff Ott: Robin.
Jeff Ott: Underwood and Dr.
Jeff Ott: Ferrat Osterk.
Jeff Ott: Thank you for joining us this afternoon.
Becky Masterman: We're so glad you both joined us.
Becky Masterman: We're very excited to talk about some spotted lantern fly.
Becky Masterman: all the stories you have and the research.
Becky Masterman: So thank you.
Jeff Ott: Please introduce yourselves to our listeners.
Jeff Ott: Give us a little bit of background about yourself.
Jeff Ott: And your history with bees and this entire topic.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: Hi, I'm Robin Underwood.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: I work for Penn State Extension.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: And I happen to live in Berks County, Pennsylvania, where spotted lanternflies were first introduced to our country.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: So that's how I came upon this research.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: And it happened because I've been studying honeybees since, you know, before the turn of the century.
Jeff Ott: Boy, that sounds that sounds
Jeff Ott: That sounds impressive.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: Uh old, yeah.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: So I got a bachelor's degree in entomology where I was lucky enough to take an apidology course with Dewey Karen
Dr. Robyn Underwood: who we all know and love, ended up doing a PhD in Winnipeg, Manitoba, with Robee Curry and on Honeybees and
Dr. Robyn Underwood: you know, have been in love with them ever since.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: I'm currently as Penn State Extensions educator, also a sideliner.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: So I keep about 135 colonies here in Pennsylvania for honey production and also for research
Jeff Ott: Is that Eastern Pennsylvania?
Jeff Ott: Western Pennsylvania?
Jeff Ott: I'm not familiar.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: Yeah, it is Eastern Pennsylvania.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: And Fairhat?
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: My name is Dr. Ferhat Ozturk.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: I work at Solros State University International in Eagle Pest, Texas.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: I'm an associate professor of biology and program director of the biomedical sciences.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: I have been studying about medicinal honey for about 14 years.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: So I fell in love with honey in back in 2012 when I was studying about wound healing.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: I found out honey is the ultimate wound healer used by every civilization on earth for thousands of years.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: And I was studying about cleft pellet, how the pellet development occurs in our mouth during the embryogenesis
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: and the mechanism of palatogenesis and wound healing is the same and then when I was studying about you know how I can improve this mechanism and I found out honey
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: It just came out from there.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: Uh got my PhD in cellular and molecular biology from University of Nevada Reno back in 2003.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: Sorry, 2007.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: And then with Dr.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: Christopher Proda.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: And then I got my postdoc at Creighton University and uh Nebraska Medical Center and worked on cell signaling, bioinformatics, and cleft pellet.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: And then I returned to my home country, Turkey, in 2013 as the director of Honey Research Center there, and then as well as Chair of Molecular Biology and Genetics at the newly established university
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: It was called Janik Bashela University.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: It was in my hometown and it was also like I returned to be you know to serve as an ST professor.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: But then I found that they also have the Honey Research Center just being established there by a well-known professor, Kamritin Mohammed Yusuf from Malaysia.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: So he was the initial people, one of the pioneers that used honey for clinical trials in Malaysia and they treated thousands of patients by using just local Tualang honey.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: It was impressive and after that I kind of devoted my life to introduce honey as the a healing for humankind.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: So not only for wound healing, but also for gastrointestinal disease, respiratory infections, skin disorders, you know, even acne.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: So honey can be used for various diseases and I'm trying what I am studying is
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: which honey has more medicinal potential and how they can be applied for therapeutic purposes.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: And for I was uh I'm also there
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: director of Honey Pathway, which is a USDA next-gen funded program and basically we are teaching our students about
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: medicinal properties of honey through research and as well as BKME apprenticeship and like the internships and research about use of honey and bees for various purposes in the research.
Becky Masterman: Wow
Becky Masterman: I did not know all of that was going on.
Becky Masterman: That is very exciting.
Jeff Ott: This is gonna be a fun show.
Jeff Ott: I am really interested in what you have to say.
Jeff Ott: I was a paramedic for quite a few years.
Jeff Ott: And during that time I also looked into the medicinal properties of honey and was always excited about what I was reading.
Jeff Ott: So we'll have to have more discussion on that.
Jeff Ott: But that's not totally reason why we're here today.
Jeff Ott: We're we're gonna talk about
Jeff Ott: The spotted lanternfly?
Jeff Ott: Robin, why don't you give us some background on the spotted lanternfly?
Dr. Robyn Underwood: Okay.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: Spotted lanternfly is a type of insect
Dr. Robyn Underwood: Kind of like an aphid, but only much larger.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: It is a leaf hopper.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: Their mouth is a big hard straw that they poke into plants and suck out the plant phloem, which is the sugar water
Dr. Robyn Underwood: blood system of the plant.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: And while they're doing that, you know, they're drinking all day long and
Dr. Robyn Underwood: Filtering out the nutrients that they need, but then excreting basically sugar water as well.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: So they tap into plants as adults, they're tapping right into trees, right through the bark.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: and excreting this honeydew, which is their excrement, on whatever is below them.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: So it could it's on the trunks of trees, leaves, other insects below them, or meat.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: Are you there?
Dr. Robyn Underwood: Yep.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: Did you say you, Robin?
Dr. Robyn Underwood: Yeah.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: Mm-hmm.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: Because I go toward these insects.
Becky Masterman: So so you regularly are dripping with honey too?
Becky Masterman: Well, it's it's all for science.
Becky Masterman: I love that.
Becky Masterman: That is that is such dedication.
Becky Masterman: That is fantastic.
Becky Masterman: And then I I this is kind of like a Disney movie because if honeydew drips on you then
Becky Masterman: Do butterflies land on you and then drink it up?
Becky Masterman: Is it I mean, are you like a flower then?
Dr. Robyn Underwood: I suppose I could be if I ever stood still.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: So yeah, what happened is when lantern flies were introduced, like I said, into Berks County, Pennsylvania, of course, you know
Dr. Robyn Underwood: Everyone freaks out about a new invasive species and they tried to eradicate them.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: So they were doing all kinds of things to try to control them
Dr. Robyn Underwood: which included, of course, learning what plants they like.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: And one thing they like as ad as adults is to gather on Tree of Heaven
Dr. Robyn Underwood: Lots of them, that's kind of where the mating occurs, and then they go off and lay eggs late in the season.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: And so they were cutting down most of the tree of heaven, which by the way is also an invasive species.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: So it's not a big deal to be eliminating most of them.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: And then they would spray the bark of these trees with a systemic pesticide
Dr. Robyn Underwood: And the workers were noticing that some beneficial insects were visiting those trees and they got concerned about them getting harmed by the pesticides.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: So I came in and put up some Sentinel beehives to see if I they were bringing it back to the hive.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: And at the time, it was quite early on.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: The paper was published in 2017.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: I did not see any impacts at all of the treatments and the bees were making their normal honey.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: It wasn't until twenty nineteen
Dr. Robyn Underwood: that beekeepers started to notice their honey was different.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: So they suddenly were getting supers full of dark
Dr. Robyn Underwood: honey at times that is normally a dearth here in Pennsylvania, so August, September, and the flavor and odor were just something that was not familiar at all.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: And so the by that time I was working for Penn State and they were calling extension, they were calling the entomology department saying, What is this strange honey?
Dr. Robyn Underwood: And so I was brought back to the research at that time and again, you know, looking for pesticides again.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: So I found a collaborator in a research labee that was able to look for those specific pesticides.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: And I'm naughty, I have not published that work, but um it's clear that spotted lanternflies are involved, that this honey is a result of honeybees collecting the lanternfly honeydew
Dr. Robyn Underwood: Pesticides are not a problem.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: Whatever they're doing, by the time it gets into honey, it's we can't really find it.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: And when we do it at exceedingly low levels, that would be safe.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: for bees.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: But I have been ever fascinated by the this honey and its flavor and every new location that gets lantern flies that has beekeepers, it's a new fascination again
Dr. Robyn Underwood: So this story will never end until the lantern flies have finished occupying the entire country.
Becky Masterman: I have so many questions.
Jeff Ott: Yeah.
Jeff Ott: Go ahead.
Jeff Ott: You might have said this in your introduction.
Jeff Ott: When was the spotted lantern fly initially found?
Jeff Ott: in Berks County.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: They found it in twenty fourteen.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: They think it probably arrived in twenty twelve.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: And interestingly it took about five years for the
Dr. Robyn Underwood: The I think it's because the population has to increase enough so that the honey bees have, you know, large quantities of honeydew to collect.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: And that's exactly what I've seen also now in other places.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: So it's like five years after you first see them, that's when the beekeepers notice the honey.
Becky Masterman: In how many states is the spotted lanternfly found now?
Becky Masterman: Seventeen or eighteen.
Becky Masterman: So a lot of beekeepers are kind of in the the path of finding this unusual honey.
Becky Masterman: that they've never seen before and it possibly being the spotted lantern fly honey then.
Becky Masterman: That's correct.
Becky Masterman: Mm-hmm.
Jeff Ott: Let's ask the obvious question right away because I I'm sure all of our listeners are wondering the same thing.
Jeff Ott: Is the spotted lanternfly honey safe to eat?
Dr. Robyn Underwood: It is safe to eat.
Jeff Ott: Can you call it honey at that point?
Jeff Ott: From a legal labeling standpoint, is there an issue?
Dr. Robyn Underwood: It depends who you ask, but in my opinion, and we'll ask for hot this as well, the definition is, you know
Dr. Robyn Underwood: This sweet product that comes from honeybee colonies who collected either floral nectar or
Dr. Robyn Underwood: other exudates of a plant, right?
Dr. Robyn Underwood: So it's all phloem.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: It's just did it go into a flower?
Dr. Robyn Underwood: Did it pass through an insect?
Dr. Robyn Underwood: or even they can directly collect the sap when the lantern fly removes their mouth parts and it starts directly leaking out of the plant through the wound.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: And there are other plants with these extra floral nectaries, right?
Dr. Robyn Underwood: So they all fr are from the same source and to me
Dr. Robyn Underwood: When it's then processed by honey bees, it becomes honey.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: Do you have a good definition for what honey is?
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: Yeah, I mean you define it pretty well.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: So honey is basically
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: the nectar that has been collected from plant secretion or animal excretions and as well as other from the blossoms of the trees and that has been enzymatically processed
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: by the honeybees, like through the invertase enzyme that it's converted from sucrose to glucose and fructose, and then it has been placed and dried by the honeybees, I mean cured by the honeybees.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: So that's kind of the overall definition of the honey.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: So in this c according to this definition, which is International Honey Commission's definition, is this this way.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: And I think USCA does the same.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: So it's a honey-dew honey, but yes
Jeff Ott: So two types honeydew honey or blossom honey, but they are both honeys.
Jeff Ott: So in essence, instead of talking about sourwood honey, we're talking about lanternfly honey.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: Right?
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: Yeah, there are other honeydew honeys I would say like there are for example there is a pine honey, it's a honeydew honey, oak honey, it's another honeydew honey
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: Suprece, fur, these are different type of honeydew honeys available in the market or people can buy those.
Becky Masterman: Are honeydew honeys
Becky Masterman: often very dark or is there a variety of shades of honey if it's from honeydew?
Becky Masterman: They do seem to be dark honeys, yes.
Becky Masterman: That's kind of exciting for maybe the beekeeper and the consumer.
Becky Masterman: And and are are we gonna get there about these the amazing properties of the spotted lanternfly honeydew
Becky Masterman: as far as as what makes it maybe different than some of your other kinds of honey.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: Well were you maybe interested in tasting it first?
Dr. Robyn Underwood: Well I'm a little bit more than a lot of people.
Becky Masterman: So I can open the jar and start there.
Becky Masterman: I I have had this it actually s it's it's actually so I'm more of an IPA person than a honey person.
Becky Masterman: So the smell is a good start because it's it's very robust.
Becky Masterman: So that's a good start.
Becky Masterman: I'm gonna go ahead and taste it.
Jeff Ott: Go ahead.
Becky Masterman: I'm not afraid.
Becky Masterman: I'm losing my finger, but
Becky Masterman: That's a honey.
Becky Masterman: That is lovely
Becky Masterman: It's not super sweet.
Becky Masterman: I found okay, I like very few honeys.
Becky Masterman: I found another one that's this is a good one.
Becky Masterman: Okay.
Jeff Ott: I'll try it.
Becky Masterman: I'm giving it thumbs up
Becky Masterman: This is the opposite of clover honey.
Jeff Ott: So Robin gave us these samples of honey or the spotted landerfly honey or the honeydew honey at the North American Honey Bee Expo in January.
Jeff Ott: And she was kind enough to give me this little tiny plastic bear because I was flying home and um I didn't want TSA to enjoy my honey.
Jeff Ott: So here we go.
Jeff Ott: There we go.
Becky Masterman: This is lovely.
Becky Masterman: It's bold.
Becky Masterman: It's complex.
Jeff Ott: Wow.
Jeff Ott: I will I will tell you my my daughter who was helping us in the booth and at the North American Honey Bee Expo
Jeff Ott: really likes this honey.
Jeff Ott: Then when I explained to her what it was, she did she take a step back?
Jeff Ott: She took a step back.
Jeff Ott: She literally
Jeff Ott: I thought I was joking with her as a dad, but no, it's it's but it's it's good.
Jeff Ott: So wow that's that's really fascinating.
Jeff Ott: So let's take this opportunity right now, since this is a great place to break
Jeff Ott: And we'll come back and we'll discuss the honeydoo honey in a little bit more detail.
Jeff Ott: We'll be right back after these words from our sponsors.
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Becky Masterman: Welcome back, everybody.
Becky Masterman: Oh goodness.
Becky Masterman: Okay.
Becky Masterman: So so if you've listened to the show, you know that I'm I'm just not a huge fan of honey.
Becky Masterman: And and I'm super excited that I've actually found one another one that I I really like.
Becky Masterman: I have to ask Robin Fairhat, how do you feel about the the taste of this honey?
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: I mean I personally like it and um I have several samples of those and I tasted most of them, uh almost all of them, and I really enjoy them.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: I like the
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: darker color honeys because they're not like they look more robust and not regular honeys, not everybody tastes as, you know.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: It's a kind of a
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: different taste and I enjoy it.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: I am not a fan.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: I much prefer the very sweet light honeys from Blossoms.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: And it's interesting because part of how we identify the sunny is by the taste, so I'm forced to put that in my mouth.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: Regular food.
Becky Masterman: Right.
Becky Masterman: I'll be over Well okay, now you know how I feel about having to taste my clover honey.
Jeff Ott: So Robin, you you impressed me with everything you do for science
Becky Masterman: Rob, this is fantastic.
Becky Masterman: Because Robin, you shared you've got a hund over a hundred colonies, a hundred and thirty-five colonies, so come late summer, you are producing a lot of this honey, correct?
Dr. Robyn Underwood: Well it's interesting, I'm not producing that much.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: It seems that when the lantern flies come, they're abundant, you make the honey, and then they kind of move off and go somewhere else, and then I can't make it anymore.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: And so I made it in 2020 in abundance almost by accident.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: And then I made some more this year.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: But in between I didn't.
Becky Masterman: Oh interesting.
Becky Masterman: So it might just be it might even be like a preference from the bees, possibly, or do you think it's the actual population of the lantern fly?
Dr. Robyn Underwood: I think it's the population of the lantern fly.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: They really like to feed on high trigger pressure phloem and I think they literally like suck the plants dry and they have to go somewhere else with healthier plants.
Jeff Ott: What I'm sorry, Robin, that that term you used, high what?
Dr. Robyn Underwood: Turger pressure, like you know, like it flows into their mouth practically from the plant.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: Yeah.
Becky Masterman: And have you been tracking it
Becky Masterman: for well it hasn't been around, I guess, long enough to have a really good understanding of of what it looks like in everybody's location
Becky Masterman: In other locations has it come and gone also?
Dr. Robyn Underwood: It has.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: And it's very, very you know how beekeeping is lo you know, very
Dr. Robyn Underwood: location specific, even within a county, you know, it they're making it here, they're not making it there.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: So it's not reliable, which is unfortunate.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: Because if we do show that this is medicinal and we want to produce it on purpose for those purposes, it may prove to be difficult.
Becky Masterman: That's so interesting.
Becky Masterman: Let's get to the fair hat.
Becky Masterman: Tell us the good properties of this of this spotted lantern fly, honeydew honey.
Becky Masterman: What's so good about it?
Becky Masterman: What have you found?
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: In our lab we analyzed more than 500 honey samples until now, since twenty three twenty-two I would say.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: And then among those honey samples we analyzed, Spotted Lanternfly is a very bright one
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: with medicinal properties.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: I would even say it can it is a one of the greatest candidates to become the medicinal honey of the United States.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: Like the manuka honey from New Zealand.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: So Swatterfly honey has the same or similar potential.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: In order to identify southern Lanthanfly honey, thanks to Robin and Penn State, you know, the pollen analysis lab, or they so sorry, Robin's colleagues they were able to identify the QPCR
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: To find out the DNA from the spotter lanternfly insect so that we are sure that these are spotted lanternfly honeydew honeys.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: So that is the way how we confirm it's coming from the source.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: And as you know, bees are not do not like monoculture.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: So they go different varieties to collect their nectar and make honey out of this.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: So that's why not every SLF honey or spotted anti-fly honeydew honey is the same amount or is the same quality or the same medicinal value.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: So that's why we measure them by using quantitative PCR, like which is a DNA technique that we checked for the
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: presence of the SLF DNA in it.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: And then after that, we analyze their antimicrobial, antioxidant, and physical chemical characteristics.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: So to find out like how many how how large the zone of inhibition of
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: How efficient they can kill the bacteria that cause disease in hospital infections.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: And our bacteria cephylococcus aureus
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: So we grow uh the bacteria on a loan, I mean on a agar as a loan, and then we open up wells on it and we put the honey into those wells and we measure the
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: zone of inhibition next morning.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: So which is like the the larger the size of zone of inhibition, the higher antibacterial activity.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: And when we analyzed these had we had to head comparison with some manuco honey is
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: which are purchased from different commercial sources.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: So we found that Spotter Lanton Fly honeys, the average of them is higher than the average of the Manuka honeys
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: So, I mean which is a great surprise and at the same time it's a kind of excitement for us because we were able to identify something very unique but also very high potential
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: On the other hand, we also look for antioxidant properties.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: So basically, most of the diseases in our body are caused because of the oxidative stress, including Alzheimer and multiple cycloresis, or
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: Cardiovascular diseases, as well as some even fetal imperfections, you know, lung diseases, they are all kind of related with oxidative stress.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: And when we can manage the oxidative stress in our body,
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: So we will have a healthier life.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: So in order to combat the oxidative stress, we need to get antioxidants into our diet.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: And we get these antioxidants from different fruits, but at the same time, honey is one of the major foods that is rich in antioxidants.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: And again, out of those 500 honey samples we found, there is almost always a uh great correlation between the color of the honey
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: and the antioxidant activity.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: So basically we put a free radical into the into the solution and then we add honey into it and we see how quickly or at which percentage
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: Honey can scavenge the free radicals which is showing its antioxidant activity or potential.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: So when we analyze spotted antifly honeys,
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: Which are usually darker than manuka honeys or other honeys, so they have high antioxidant potential.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: So overall, high antimicrobial activity, high antioxidant potential, it's kind of a golden bullet
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: So to be graded as medical grade honey.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: And as Father Lands and Fly honeys, a good number of them are in this category.
Jeff Ott: Manuka honey has a a scale, what do they call it the UMF?
Jeff Ott: UMF, yes, unique manical factors.
Jeff Ott: Yeah, an MGO.
Jeff Ott: So how does the lantern fly honey run at scale?
Jeff Ott: Because when you look at a jar of manuka honey and you've paid an absorbent amount of money for the manuka honey
Jeff Ott: it always has that scale and says it above I can't remember the number on the UMF scale.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: The monocot tree, which is the spermum, it has a sp uh it has a chemical
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: uh which is known as DHA and then when it is converted into honey by the honeybees in New Zealand mostly, it will produce MgO, metylglyoxal
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: So methylglyoxal is an antiseptic agent, so it kills the bacteria as a chemical.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: But on the other hand, I mean the higher the amount of MGO
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: the higher antibacterial potential of the manuka honeys and mgo used to be i mean still some of the manuka companies it use this scaling
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: But the New Zealand government has made a new method of classification, they use unique manuka factor or UMF
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: And UMF has 5 plus, 10 plus, 15 plus, 20, 25 plus, and above.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: So anything like uh most of the honeys, monocanies that are available on the market are
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: 10 plus or 15 plus or even 5 plus or less.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: So these are the manuka honeys that are that are still medical grade but not very high and can be used for daily purposes.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: But
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: When the UMF value goes 20 or 25 plus, then these are the honeys that are used for that are used for wound gels or for wound dressings or hydrogels.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: So these are the ones that are used for
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: Medical applications for burn wounds or other different types of wounds for treatment.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: What we found out is some of the SLF honeys are equivalent or even surpassing the 20 and 25 UMF values
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: We are not putting them UMF because it is only for manuka.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: The method that we developed in our lab is uh bioactivity level, which is BAL
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: So the bowel value is the the way that we analyze or classify the honeys for for their medicinal potential.
Becky Masterman: Is the spotted lanternfly honeydoo honey going to be standardized or how do beekeepers know that they have it
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: Currently we are working on standardization of those because we would like to see if there is a s a particular active ingredient coming from the SLF honeys.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: But as Robin mentioned, the SLF, I mean those insects, they will visit
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: more than like hundred and seventy different plants.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: So the majority they go for Tree of Heaven or Black Walnut or uh even the vineyards, I mean the the grapes and
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: They go and collect them, but also they are as they collect the phloem, they are also collecting those phytochemicals in them like phylloonates and phenolic acids.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: So this is also inserted or embedded into the honey
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: when the honey bees collect the honeydew and make uh honey out of it.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: So in terms of standardization, the pollen uh analysis
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: is helpful but it's not the only standard right now.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: So we are focusing on on the QPCR.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: The identifying the
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: the DNA source and then trying to classify them based on those.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: But overall, uh my approach as a honey uh expert for you know about
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: 14 years of experience, I usually go with the bioactivity level, so this will encompass any honey in the world as long as it is real honey.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: Any honey in the world will have a bioactivity level
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: And then a spotted lantern fly will be on the classification of high bioactivity level honeys.
Becky Masterman: What's the moisture content or does that vary also?
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: It does, depending on how quickly, yeah.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: I mean, you know, moisture content is mostly dependent on, you know, the m the environment, the climate, but as well as how quickly or how early.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: the beekeepers are collecting the honey.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: So it is as low as I think 13.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: 5 and goes all the way to 19.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: 8 or something like that among the samples that we analyzed
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: So which is kind of dangerous because anything above 18 is considered, you know, uh prone to fermentation.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: You asked how a beekeeper will know they got this without a lab test.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: So of course it's based on
Dr. Robyn Underwood: several things.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: So first of all, the color, odor, and flavor that you experienced in the jar, and also the time of year that it was collected.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: and the location.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: So whether there were lantern flies present and in abundance at the time.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: The test that Farhat is referring to with the QPCR is quantitative.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: So you can kind of find out how much
Dr. Robyn Underwood: lanterfly DNA is in there.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: And it does seem to matter.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: There's some other tests that we've done that show that, you know, there's like high, medium, and low
Dr. Robyn Underwood: Because it's not pure honeydo honey.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: There are other things for them to forage on.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: There could be goldenrod and knotweed and things like that around.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: So it's like
Dr. Robyn Underwood: Partial lantern fly, partial nectar, and again it's going to be very location specific.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: So this honey does vary
Dr. Robyn Underwood: But it's very obvious when lantern fly honeydew is in there.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: Like there's classic, like what you have, the odor, flavor, and color are the aftertaste.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: The aftertaste is like
Dr. Robyn Underwood: It lingers.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: Do you still like it?
Dr. Robyn Underwood: I still like it, yeah.
Becky Masterman: I like I said, give me an IPA, I'm very happy.
Becky Masterman: So this is my kind of honey.
Jeff Ott: I like I liked Robin's uh skepticism.
Jeff Ott: And you still like it?
Becky Masterman: I still like this honey.
Becky Masterman: No, I love this honey.
Becky Masterman: I love this honey.
Becky Masterman: But let's let's talk about it.
Becky Masterman: So this is
Becky Masterman: It's kind of it's so exciting to have a medicinal honey.
Becky Masterman: I've got two questions.
Becky Masterman: One, let's just start here.
Becky Masterman: What does this do for the bees?
Becky Masterman: Do we know that this honey is great for the bees to winter?
Becky Masterman: on because they're collecting it late season.
Becky Masterman: Does do they get benefits from this honey?
Dr. Robyn Underwood: That is a great question.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: I'm glad you're asking me that because I've changed my tune on that.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: Certainly, it's a great savings to the beekeepers.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: If the bees can just feed themselves, right, they will fill up their hive and then some with this honey.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: Lots of winters.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: We've had great success.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: However, this year we had in Pennsylvania a very long cold spell where they couldn't fly for a very long time.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: and I'm s hearing and seeing in my own hives some dysentery.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: So honeydo honey is quite well known to have too high of an ash content.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: I don't have the data yet on that, but that's like my next sort of area of research is to go and collect honey from colonies with dysentery and without dysentery and and measure the, you know, electrical conductivity and see because
Dr. Robyn Underwood: I think the honey's okay as long as the bees can have cleansing flights regularly, but I'm fearing now that perhaps if we have a winter like this year
Dr. Robyn Underwood: it it could cause some harm.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: I I don't know what to tell beekeepers about how to predict what the wenders gonna be like or w how they should respond.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: I haven't had a chance.
Becky Masterman: Right.
Becky Masterman: No that's and that's even
Becky Masterman: it's I mean it's even tricky to navigate that.
Becky Masterman: How do you how do you keep them from storing that in their ne in the brood nest?
Jeff Ott: You'd have to move the hive.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: Or or in Europe they have to like strip it out and then feed them back sugar water, which I don't want to have
Becky Masterman: I remember I I remember I was looking up some really, really old over a I think hundred year data uh reports on molasses and ash content and
Becky Masterman: And I I I caught that there's that honeydew reference as far as the early on beekeepers knew that or they they were saying that wintering and on honeydew led to dysentery
Becky Masterman: And they were they were looking at that and the ash content and the and the honeydew.
Becky Masterman: So that's so interesting.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: So again, I'm gonna go toward the hives with
Dr. Robyn Underwood: poop on them for science.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: I I you are just a giver, Robin.
Becky Masterman: I I have to ask
Becky Masterman: You mentioned knotweed.
Becky Masterman: Did you mean Japanese knotweed?
Becky Masterman: Because I I found that for the first time in my bees and I collected a bunch of it.
Becky Masterman: It took a little while to figure out what it was.
Becky Masterman: But
Becky Masterman: That is dark too, but just not as dark as the lantern fly.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: Yeah, it looks blood red in the hive.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: It's really cool.
Becky Masterman: And it it also doesn't taste as bad as clover honey.
Jeff Ott: So the so the lantern fly, if I recall right, is spreading pretty quickly across the United States and they're worried about it being in the
Jeff Ott: You mentioned they feed on the grapes as well.
Jeff Ott: I know that there is some concern about the lantern fly in Oregon and Washington State here too.
Jeff Ott: Like all invasive species, there's really not much
Jeff Ott: Anyone or the beekeepers can do about the spotted lantern fly is there.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: Cut down all the tree of heaven.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: Good luck with that
Dr. Robyn Underwood: Yeah, it is a major problem for grapes, for vineyards.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: You know, that is the main commodity that suffers.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: And so there are lots of extension materials for them, specifically about lanterflies.
Becky Masterman: Spider and Lanternfly, they're invasive, not good, but there are definitely beekeepers who are now benefiting from this.
Becky Masterman: They're kind of making the best out of a bad situation as far as able to
Becky Masterman: collect and sell the honey and report on the properties.
Becky Masterman: So is that happening across these seventeen or so states?
Becky Masterman: Where people are beekeepers are specializing in lantern fly honey?
Dr. Robyn Underwood: Well, I see both ends.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: I see beekeepers that are like, this is gross, I don't like it, I don't want to sell it, I don't know what to do with it.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: And they just kind of put it in a pail and in the corner.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: And then there's others that are absolute brilliant marketers who are like, I'm gonna make this a thing and I'm gonna
Dr. Robyn Underwood: you know, charge extra and make it look appealing and they're doing very well.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: So it's, you know, everyone has their own op opinion of the flavor and
Dr. Robyn Underwood: It's usefulness, but my advice is at least let the consumer know what they're buying.
Becky Masterman: That makes sense.
Becky Masterman: That makes sense
Becky Masterman: Taste it first.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: So And maybe I would uh just uh step in here for the selling this other Lanthrim fly honey as you know it's a high medicinal value or it is a great honey.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: In order for the honey to be in the medical uh medicinal market or to be as medical grade, so there are some additional steps that needs to be taken, like the storage conditions, but as well as you know harvesting time
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: you know less moisture.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: But there's also a gamma sterilization, uh s uh especially for manuka honey they always do this because there might be some endospores that uh inside the honey that may cause
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: you know maybe design to any bees or other uh you know other organisms as well.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: So do not I mean try not to buy any medicinal honey from a corner store or you know something like that because
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: I mean, yes, honey is medicine and has been used for thousands of years, but according to the the regulations in the the you know, medicin market today or medicinal, you know, value or FTA, so the medical grade honeys, they have to go through the process of
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: gumma serilization to be considered or to be consumed as uh medical grade honey.
Becky Masterman: I was at my local farmer market and I picked up a jar of honey and it listed
Becky Masterman: every single possible benefit that that honey could give you and I was like, oh, we should be more careful than that when we're putting things on the label because
Becky Masterman: It was it was curing, diabetes, it was it was doing all of these things.
Becky Masterman: So really be careful everybody as far as sort of what you're claiming your honey can do.
Becky Masterman: I mean it's exciting to be able to talk about it and to talk about what the research has shown.
Becky Masterman: But be really careful about not practicing medicine with your with your honey.
Jeff Ott: The honey, dew honey from the spotted lantern fly has some qualities to it that people either like or don't like.
Jeff Ott: Robin doesn't like, Becky does.
Becky Masterman: No, I love it.
Jeff Ott: We're we're looking at the the potential medicinal properties of the honey
Jeff Ott: And I think that's really, really exciting.
Jeff Ott: I know it's honey is very important in wound care and from ulcers and uh non-healing wounds.
Jeff Ott: and to have another source of honey for this from an invasive species that's making good out of bad, basically, you know, so that's
Jeff Ott: I I like looking at the positive side of that and I'm hopeful that we can find that use for it.
Becky Masterman: That was well said.
Jeff Ott: Thank you, it was roughly said.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: But yeah, it it is it the effect of a sell of honey that you just tried?
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: I mean it's kind of slow you down or not.
Jeff Ott: See unicorns.
Jeff Ott: What is it?
Jeff Ott: What is good in this honey
Jeff Ott: What else should we know about the spotted lanternfly and or the honeydoo honey?
Becky Masterman: I'll I'll say that the spotted lanternflies is making it more difficult for beekeepers to move their bees from state to state.
Becky Masterman: So if you are in a state that has spotted landerfly and you do move your bees to pollination, that requires extra certification.
Jeff Ott: And that's not because of the honey, it's because of the egg cases and the the spotted lantern fly itself.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: It's just like anything, you need to get to know your pest, right?
Dr. Robyn Underwood: Like we all very well know the Varroamite life cycle because we need to understand the enemy.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: Same thing with spotted lander flies.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: You need to know their life cycle.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: You need to recognize the egg cases and what they look like as nymphs and what they look like as an adult so that you don't carry them to new places.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: Because they will lay their eggs on anything.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: practically any flat surface.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: They like your wood pallets, you know, they like rusty metal.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: Could be anything.
Becky Masterman: Is there an estimated distribution of this pest?
Becky Masterman: Is do they think that it's going to
Becky Masterman: Travel all the way west?
Dr. Robyn Underwood: Well, first of all, if anybody wants to track where they are currently, you go to the Cornell webpage and look for the spotted lanternfly map.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: They are the ones that maintain the map
Dr. Robyn Underwood: regularly, every time there's a new sighting, new spot, they add it to the map.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: There also was a paper that tried to predict the distribution that will be
Dr. Robyn Underwood: And if I remember correctly, it was based on pretty much everywhere where there's tree of heaven was a
Dr. Robyn Underwood: you know, where they're probably going to be.
Becky Masterman: Do you know what zone that is?
Becky Masterman: I'm sorry, I'm I'm asking you all the tough questions.
Becky Masterman: I just I don't think we have tree of heaven in my part of Minnesota.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: Great, then you might be safe because they've shown that
Dr. Robyn Underwood: Technically, lantern flies can reproduce without it, but they do very poorly.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: So they would much prefer to have it and uh do very well when they have.
Dr. Robyn Underwood: Tree of heaven.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: And I think another thing is that the climate.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: I think I don't know if they will be ever come to very south like Florida or Texas or those areas.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: because of the like very hot uh summers.
Becky Masterman: It's hardy to zone four.
Becky Masterman: Zone four to eight.
Jeff Ott: Well, Robin for hot, we really appreciate you coming this afternoon and talking to us about the spotted lantern fly and
Jeff Ott: SLH Honeydew Honey and giving us an opportunity to taste it live on the podcast.
Jeff Ott: Well, it's recorded live on the podcast.
Jeff Ott: And get our reaction.
Jeff Ott: It's really quite fun.
Jeff Ott: And look forward to learning more as we learn more about the uses of the honey and also of the spotted lantern fly as it makes its way across the country.
Becky Masterman: Yeah, thank you both.
Becky Masterman: What a resource both of you are as far as taking the lead on getting down to what
Becky Masterman: this honey means for beekeepers, for bees, and for wound healing and mid medicine.
Becky Masterman: So thank you both.
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk: Thanks for having me.
Jeff Ott: It's my pleasure.
Becky Masterman: Thanks for helping us spread the word.
Jeff Ott: It's gonna be hard for anybody to take that jar.
Jeff Ott: of honeydew honey out of your hands.
Becky Masterman: I'm actually considering I need to start looking for a new source of this honey.
Becky Masterman: This is the best honey.
Becky Masterman: So good.
Becky Masterman: It like it it just
Becky Masterman: It's just such a cool honey.
Becky Masterman: I it's so impressive.
Becky Masterman: It's so different.
Becky Masterman: And it's I mean it's different than buckwheat honey.
Becky Masterman: It's differ different than the Japanese knotwood.
Becky Masterman: It's different than any honey I've ever had.
Becky Masterman: It doesn't taste like manuka honey, but you can kind of taste some of those undertones.
Jeff Ott: Those qualities.
Jeff Ott: Yeah.
Jeff Ott: I find anything with a hydrogen peroxide or the high
Jeff Ott: values like that has a medicinal type kind of aftertaste or taste to it.
Jeff Ott: And I was looking at the on the Cornell website and and it doesn't look like the spotted lantern fly is supposed to be very big in
Jeff Ott: Minnesota.
Becky Masterman: Ever.
Jeff Ott: Yeah, mill maybe a little bit down in the southeast corner.
Becky Masterman: Yeah.
Becky Masterman: That's interesting because the whole like that association with the Tree of Heaven and
Becky Masterman: I even though we are in that zone now, I haven't I just haven't heard of it being planted or spreading
Becky Masterman: I could be wrong.
Jeff Ott: I could definitely be corrected, but I don't see where this is the map I'm looking at is connected with the tree of heaven, but it's kind of like the known risk regions.
Jeff Ott: And so it's Central California, very big, of course through the all the the valley there, Central Valley, and eastern uh Washington and Oregon where all the orchards and vineyards are
Jeff Ott: And up cross a big swath of the the Midwest.
Jeff Ott: So I hope.
Becky Masterman: I mean and it would not be good for my bees
Becky Masterman: to feed on and store that kind of honey for the winter with that ash content.
Becky Masterman: So even though I really like this honey and and and I of course I never wish for an invasive species to come.
Becky Masterman: to spread.
Becky Masterman: So even though some of them the bees really, really like.
Becky Masterman: But I will say, I will say though, it it it would be easier for beekeepers if
Becky Masterman: it stays in a little bit warmer climates so that uh the bees are able to take their cleansing flights and um it's not a concern.
Becky Masterman: Because that's I I know I look at the calendar, there are i it's weeks between the bees being able to
Becky Masterman: get out and and when they do it's still it's like thirty-two degrees and and a sunny day, which is, you know, not a great day for a bunch of bees to leave the colony and fly.
Becky Masterman: So No.
Jeff Ott: Yeah, it makes a mess also.
Jeff Ott: Like I mentioned before, I do like the fact that there is some good that could potentially be found in this honey, and I I I'll just focus on that.
Jeff Ott: I'll be probably annish about it.
Becky Masterman: I no, I I I I really it it's exciting and and Robin was just mentioning to us about how
Becky Masterman: the story of the the spotted lantern fly honey is is interesting and people enjoy it and honestly people are really sophisticated when it comes to tastes and flavors and I think they're really embracing just the variety of of honey.
Becky Masterman: that beekeepers can provide.
Becky Masterman: So I I agree with you.
Becky Masterman: We can we can be positive about this.
Becky Masterman: Negative about the impact to beekeepers moving bees or to the vegetation.
Becky Masterman: But let's be positive about the honey.
Jeff Ott: And that about wraps it up for this episode of Beekeeping Today.
Jeff Ott: Before we go, be sure to follow us and leave us a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts.
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Jeff Ott: We want to thank Better
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Jeff Ott: We also appreciate our longtime sponsors, Global Patties, Strong Microbials, and Northern Bee Books for their support in bringing you each week's episode.
Jeff Ott: And most importantly, thank you for the next video.
Jeff Ott: for listening and spending time with us.
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Jeff Ott: Thanks again everybody