One of the people who reads my blog, Elise, submitted this comment on my last post and I think it's important to share with everyone else:
"...I wondered if you're using high-fructose corn syrup as bee bait? I'm guessing not, but I just wanted to check, as I was a little concerned given studies that show a potentially harmful substance may form in high-fructose corn syrup that may contribute to honey bee deaths and colony collapse disorder (I use local, raw, unprocessed honey myself when baiting bees). For more info on HFCS and HMF see this article"
So there you have it -corn syrup as an attractant is a no no. Since the majority of the commercial beekeepers I talk to say that the quantities that I use as bait are too small to cause problems I'm going to go back to using honey.
