Comments on: Mites in General http://www.beekeepersfriend.com/2011/03/28/mites-in-general/ Peaches' Beekeeping Blog Thu, 12 Apr 2012 17:35:02 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: ekpeach http://www.beekeepersfriend.com/2011/03/28/mites-in-general/comment-page-1/#comment-10522 ekpeach Tue, 29 Mar 2011 16:46:22 +0000 http://www.beekeepersfriend.com/?p=737#comment-10522 All insects including Flies, Wasps, Yellow Jackets, Ants, Small Hive Beetles, and Wax Moths are essential to the ecology. They eat insects, dead or alive, plants, dead or alive, fruits, dead or alive, wax and diseases. I agree that they can be nuisances, but without them and buzzards, hyenas, sharks, and entities like that, we would have dying, decaying, and putrid stuff laying around and making the world stink worse than what we have made it by ourselves. Keep reading. I will be posting some of that information in the near future. I do not use grease patties anymore unless I can monitor the colonies real close. The hive beetles love that kind of food, and they can lay lot of babies on the protein and grease. I really do not treat for trachea mites. I don't know why just that I don't feel I have a big problem with them. All insects including Flies, Wasps, Yellow Jackets, Ants, Small Hive Beetles, and Wax Moths are essential to the ecology. They eat insects, dead or alive, plants, dead or alive, fruits, dead or alive, wax and diseases. I agree that they can be nuisances, but without them and buzzards, hyenas, sharks, and entities like that, we would have dying, decaying, and putrid stuff laying around and making the world stink worse than what we have made it by ourselves.
Keep reading. I will be posting some of that information in the near future.
I do not use grease patties anymore unless I can monitor the colonies real close. The hive beetles love that kind of food, and they can lay lot of babies on the protein and grease. I really do not treat for trachea mites. I don’t know why just that I don’t feel I have a big problem with them.

]]> By: Chelsea http://www.beekeepersfriend.com/2011/03/28/mites-in-general/comment-page-1/#comment-10519 Chelsea Tue, 29 Mar 2011 13:46:36 +0000 http://www.beekeepersfriend.com/?p=737#comment-10519 Ooh yuck, what a description! I can't get the image of "volleyball-sized frisbees sucking my blood" out of my head. I had no idea that the bees would corral and "look after" small hive beetles like that. From what I've heard from our local bee inspector, small hivebeetles mainly just make a mess of things (like wax moths) and aren't directly dangerous to honeybees (basically, just like you say!). I read your post on testing and treating mites too - thanks for that. Do you use grease patties for tracheal mites? Do you know if it works? Or does icing sugar help? Ooh yuck, what a description! I can’t get the image of “volleyball-sized frisbees sucking my blood” out of my head.

I had no idea that the bees would corral and “look after” small hive beetles like that. From what I’ve heard from our local bee inspector, small hivebeetles mainly just make a mess of things (like wax moths) and aren’t directly dangerous to honeybees (basically, just like you say!).

I read your post on testing and treating mites too – thanks for that. Do you use grease patties for tracheal mites? Do you know if it works? Or does icing sugar help?

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