# Help with Tropilaelaps mites in PNG



## Oldtimer (Jul 4, 2010)

Sorry to hear you now have this in PNG. Any of the varroa treatments will also kill tropilaelaps, however there is a problem that tropilaelaps population builds back much faster.

One paper from Pakistan found a natural ebb and flow of tropilaelaps population with the seasons unlike varroa that just steadily kept increasing.
http://www.apimondia.com/apiacta/articles/2005/camphor_1.pdf 

An experiment reported in the Journal of Apicultural Research indicated a 100% control of tropilaelaps via a broodless period
"Three methods for controlling Tropilaelaps clareae in honeybee (Apis mellifera) colonies without medication were tested: (1) caging the queen for more than 21 days, then releasing her a few days after all workers had emerged, (2) caging the queen for 9 days until all brood was sealed, then cutting off the cappings and shaking the brood out of the combs, and (3) removing all brood from the colony. The effectiveness of the treatments was assessed by determining percentage infestation of worker bees before, during and after treatment and recording numbers of mites falling daily on to the bottom board of the hive. With method (1) percentage infestation and numbers of mites falling on to the bottom board increased up to 10 times after 8 days, when no unsealed brood was left. Within 3 days after the last bees emerged the numbers of dying mites decreased considerably and a few days later none were found on adult bees. With method (2) the number of dying mites collected decreased considerably within 3 or 4 days after the brood had been shaken out, and a few days later no mites were found on the workers. With method (3) the number of mites collected declined considerably within 1 to 3 days after removal of the brood and a few days later no mites were found on the workers. It appeared that worker bees cleared the comb cells of dead mites within a few days. As T. clareae is unable to feed on blood of adult bees it can be controlled simply by depriving colonies of brood".
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00218839.1985.11100681


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## jwcarlson (Feb 14, 2014)

Interesting, OT. So without brood all the tropilaelaps die... So it wouldn't be a threat after winter up this far north? Or at least at this point... I've heard doom and gloom about tropilaelaps, but don't really know much about them.

Thanks for the links.


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## Oldtimer (Jul 4, 2010)

Yes places that have broodless periods in ALL hives should not suffer too badly. But tropilaelaps increase in number way faster than varroa so in an area where just some hives have brood all winter, and act as a resevoir to re infect the broodless hives in spring, they could be a problem. In areas where these things are they are mostly considered a worse pest than varroa mites.


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## westtnbeekeeper (Oct 26, 2015)

It is my understanding from Kent Williams in kentucky that tropilaelips are highly sensitive to standard varroa mite treatments. They are also as i understand it very prolific reproducers. Someone correct me if I err but I believe i remember the foundress varroa mite may produce as many as 6 viable offspring per cell in ideal conditions. Whereas the tropilaelip might produce 20 to 25. Scary... Not for sure if I spelled any of that correctly or if my calculations are spot on but that was the information presented in informal discussion at the last field day I was able to attend. Also understood there to be no confirmed cases in the central united states.


Was not aware of the efficacy of a broodless period. That is nice to know.


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## Oldtimer (Jul 4, 2010)

Good post. Yes tropilaelaps are the nightmare scenario for a lot of beekeeping countries if or when they arrive.


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## Paul's Babees (Dec 21, 2015)

Thanks for everyone for the advice. Beesource is really a great!!! I live in the middle of nowhere, and I can get advice from around the world. 

Can anyone describe how to cage a queen? Is it as simple as just putting her back in the a plastic cage like the ones I've received new queens in, and leaving the cage in the hive? Do I include a few worker bees to take care of her? Will the other bees keep her fed from the outside? I actually just practiced putting a queen in a cage for the fist time last month. 

I suppose I should cage the queen in all of my hives at the same time to reduce the spread. But there are tons of wild Apis Cerana colonies everywhere here. So the Tropilaelaps mites will likely continue to be a problem.


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## Oldtimer (Jul 4, 2010)

Paul's Babees said:


> Can anyone describe how to cage a queen? Is it as simple as just putting her back in the a plastic cage like the ones I've received new queens in, and leaving the cage in the hive? Do I include a few worker bees to take care of her? Will the other bees keep her fed from the outside?


Yes you can put her in the cage and leave it in the hive. But a wooden cage with wire mesh will get much better results for ease of access for the bees to feed her than happens with a plastic cage. Just the queen goes in by herself, no other bees.

What do you do in PNG out of interest?


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## Paul's Babees (Dec 21, 2015)

[What do you do in PNG out of interest?[/QUOTE]

I'll work on making some mesh cages today. I'll check out the bees today, and if they are strong enough, I'll try caging the queens. If they look like they won't survive three weeks with no brood, I'll try the treatment strips. 

I live in a place called "ukarumpa" (look it up on wikipedia). We work as an aircraft engineer for a linguistics organization. There used to be a number of bee keepers around, but over the last few years the Varroa moved in, and it's taken a lot more work to keep hives alive. So I am the last remaining bee keeper in our community. I've had hives here for about 6 years now. There is one other local guy who keeps some bees in a village not too far from here as well, and we keep in pretty close contact. 

Thanks again for the advice!


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## Oldtimer (Jul 4, 2010)

I was thinking that if all the wild bees get exterminated it may make it easier for you to run localised control. But how do the Cerana go against tropilaelaps? Not sure but I _think_ tropilaelaps are not native to your cerana, but origionated from dorsata. Would have to run some fact checking to be sure though.

Here's a couple pics of the kind of cages I use for banking live queens in a hive.


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## westtnbeekeeper (Oct 26, 2015)

Very nice... I am some confused... Most beekeepers are gone from varroa? Is it apis cerana that thrives in the presence of tropawhateverlaps? Some strains of honeybees may not be susceptible to tropamites? Curious?


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## Paul's Babees (Dec 21, 2015)

I figured that the Cerana were the ones that brought the Tropilealaps to the area. Not that I have any proof of that whatsoever. I just hived my first Cerana last month, so I could go look in that hive and see if I can see any mites. 

There's no way of controlling the Cerana around here. The villages are full of them, and even on my compound I probably kill 2 hives a month for people who have them in their houses and sheds. 

Thanks for the pictures of the boxes. I can easily do something like that. And today is a bright sunny day! Perfect for looking at bees during our colder months here.


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## Paul's Babees (Dec 21, 2015)

westtnbeekeeper said:


> I am some confused... Most beekeepers are gone from varroa? Curious?


My friends tell me "I used to have a hive that I had to do absolutely nothing with until Christmas, when I'd get about 5 gallons of honey per year. Then all the hives started dyeing out, and we figured it was from the mites". 

That quote is probably looking back 10 years now... I've been tracking the Varroa mites for the last 5 years or so, and looking for Tropilaelaps. Our local agriculture department guys told me that other parts of PNG had them, so I should be on the lookout. But last week was the first I found Tropilaelaps. We had a drought last year, and the bees did really well. So I figured that there was a lot of bees (mostly Cerana) moving around the country, and I figured that's how the mites moved around as well. But again, I have no proof. That's just me thinking!

The history I found online is that the westerners brought western bees in when they settled the eastern half the island. And the Indonesians brought in Cerana when they settled the eastern half the island. What was native to PNG? Who knows.


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## Paul's Babees (Dec 21, 2015)

Well, just checked my hives after a week, and found one completely dead, and one on the brink. Two healthy ones are the ones that re-queened a couple months ago. Sad day. I treated the remaining 4 hives with medication strips, and closed off half the entrances so the Cerana bees don't try to rob. This was the first time that I've seen Cerana bees trying to rob while I inspected my hives. Three weeks ago, they were all 5 healthy hives. Now they are barely hanging on! 

I could see the Tropilaelaps mites crawling around the comb near the brood. They are much smaller and harder to spot than the Varroa mites were. I pulled a couple of capped larva, and could see 2 mites on each one.


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## Oldtimer (Jul 4, 2010)

How is your cerana hive?


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## Paul's Babees (Dec 21, 2015)

Thought I had already posed this... But can't see it now. Sorry if it shows up twice. 
I just checked my Cerana hive (quite new, but looking healthy). After a long search of the bottom board, I found one live Tropilaelas mite crawling around. So that proves to me that the Cerana can carry these mites. I checked multiple larvae and didn't see any mites. But the larvae seemed a darker brown color similar to the mites, so I could have easily missed them. This is the first time I've messed with Cerana at all other than killing them, so I find it quite interesting. I remember reading somewhere that the mites can live on the Cerana and it doesn't seem to affect them as much as with the Mellifera. 

I put a small piece of medicated strip in the hive, so I'll look again tomorrow to see if more mites show up on the bottom board.


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## Paul's Babees (Dec 21, 2015)

After 24 hrs with medicated strips in all my hives I checked the bottom boards again. In the Meliferra hive there were plenty of both Varroa and Tropilealaps mites crawling around. Quite interesting. 

In the Cerana hive, I found about 10 varroa mites on the bottom board, but no large mature Tropilealaps mites. I did find two VERY small bugs that were bright white, looked like the Tropilealaps mites in orientation and shape, but you would have to line 10 of them end to end to match the size of a varroa mite. So possibly very young ones? It's interesting to me to se a marked lack of full size Tropilealaps mites though. 

I guess in the end, it's not a huge deal either way. I just find it interesting!


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## beepro (Dec 31, 2012)

Dang, both specie of mites working on your broods, huh.
It will be a big deal when all of your hives had crashed.
Is there a way you can import some mite resistant bees?
Maybe OT can send you some queens once his survivor queens got established.
Or you can try my method of the homemade oav gadget under the hive. Try to
do a search here on oav. Oxalis acid is the most organic form of treatment these days.


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