The Varroa Mite
By ekpeach in General | 3 comments
Without the benefit of research books and charts, I will tell you what I know about the Varroa Mite. It came to the USA about 1990 give or take a couple of years. It hitched a ride from Asia and came with some honeybees, either as a swarm stowaway or as a boxed hive.
The mite is a parasite that sucks the blood of the honeybee. As it sucks the blood, it transfers viruses and pathogens to the bee and these attack the immune system. Because of this, the bees get sick to the point that the they don’t want to do their jobs to the best of their ability. They don’t care for the larvae, keep the floor clean, or don’t guard the hive efficiently, and cannot collect food.
The way it happens is this: The mite is already on the bee and when she is feeding or checking on the larva that is elongating in the cell just before the cap is closed. The mite hops off the nurse bee and enters the cell and hides under the larva so the nurse cannot see or detect it. Then when the cell is closed, the mite lays two to four eggs. The first one being a drone. When the mite eggs hatch, the drone (brother) impregnates his sister(s) and then dies. The girls will then get on the pupa of the honey bee and start sucking blood. When the bee emerges as a full grown adult, the mites will either jump on another bee or stay where they are and wait till the bee starts to inspect or feed another larva that is getting ready to metamorph into another pupa and the cycle starts over again.
This usually happens in the late Summer to early Fall and early Spring. So now, we need to count mites to see if the threshold is breached.
The mites can be taken care of either by chemicals or by non-invasive means. If you wish to know more about the chemical way, then leave me a commit and I will get back to you either by this blog site or I will send you an email. Follow the link to count mites.
That is enough for now. Plan to feed sugar syrup or corn syrup, unless you have left enough honey on your colonies to carry the bees through to Fall.
REMEMBER: It is hot, so drink plenty to water.
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Lori | Oct 23, 2011 | Reply
I was outside in my yard all afternoon and I had a thing that landed in my wrist. I tried to flick it away and it didn’t budge so I killed it with my garden glove. Unfortunately when I came in the house (about 20 minutes later) to prepare supper I got violently ill and threw up until there was nothing left to throw up.
So I am wondering if it could possibly be a varroa mite that made me so sick so suddenly? I am deathly allergic to bees and hornets and have an epipen and I must go directly to hospital when a bee or hornet land on me.
I’m quite interested in the answer.
Thanks.
ekpeach | Oct 24, 2011 | Reply
Lori,
It was not a varroa mite. They only get on honey bees. If you could see it clearly, then it was something else. The mite is just a hair larger than a flee, and is red to rusty brown in color. They are hard to see with the necked eye, especially for someone who has never seen one before. Hope this helps some.