# varroa mites on wild bees/new colony



## Ravenseye (Apr 2, 2006)

It certainly sounds like a mite. And, it's hard to judge the mite population by sighting a few mites on the outside of bees. It's better to do drop counts or bee rolls / shakes to get a better idea and I personally prefer to measure mite drops over a period of time as opposed to a snapshot. Mites are everywhere so how it bodes for you depends on a lot of things. The strain of bees, how you treat, etc. Keep reading and asking questions and you'll get some good ideas that you can try. In my mind, there is no single solution for mite control. A combined approach is what I like.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

If it was small and round like a tick, it was a Varroa mite. If it looked more like a bug with legs, it was a Braula coeca.


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## dannyidp (Jun 10, 2010)

Hey don't sweat about the plastic foundation.I can tell you from experience that they will not draw out plastic foundation as fast as they will wax foundation (at least not for me)


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## WilliamsHoneyBees (Feb 17, 2010)

Yeah don't sweat the foundation. When you buy more foundation buy something else you'd like to try. I've got wax, plastic and foundationless all in one hive. And I like them all.

-Dan


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## debraC (Mar 9, 2010)

Thanks for the replies. I guess in truth I have no idea if it was a varroa mite or something else (it looks like _some_ of the pictures of varroa mites). To be honest, my first thought was 'OMG! That bee has fleas!" 

I guess I shouldn't worry too much at this time. I'm just panicking about the bees I won't even have for at least four months.

I wasn't too worried about the foundation. It's just I bought a kit (yes I know, but it the end it seemed the best deal for me) and asked to substitute the plastic foundation for beeswax and the _very next day_ I read that most beeswax has a high concentration of pesticides. I have no idea if it's true, but it seemed logical to worry about it since there was nothing I could do at that point. 

Thanks again. I'm sure that's not the last time I'll panic.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

The thing on bees that looks the most like fleas are Braula.


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## debraC (Mar 9, 2010)

I'm going to take your word for that! I didn't think some of the pictures of Braula looked as much like some of the pictures of Varroa. But the pictures have a large variance in both color and appearance! (At least to my untrained eye.)  Well, no doubt soon enough I'll have more experience looking at these things that I want.


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## deknow (Jul 17, 2006)

...to me, this looks a bit big to be varroa, but it's hard to tell from this angle. any thoughts?

deknow


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## deknow (Jul 17, 2006)

ok, i found a higher res version, and cropped/sharpened it. actually, it looks like 4 legs on the left to me


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## Lauren (Jun 10, 2010)

Wow that looks too big to me too. (But I have only ever seen one) Maybe while we are working on mite resistant bees, the mites are working on growing SO big that they won't fall through the Screened bb


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## debraC (Mar 9, 2010)

Hey, that's just what it looked like! Except I couldn't see whether there were legs.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

It does look large and you can see the legs... odd for a Varroa. Here's a picture of a Varroa (the one on the right) that looks a lot like the one you show. Maybe the Varroa has it's legs out more to hold on where there hair is fuzzy. The one on the left is a Braula coeca.

http://entnemdept.ifas.ufl.edu/creatures/misc/bees/varroa_mite07.htm


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## deknow (Jul 17, 2006)

....the photo i posted is a stock photo (you will see it several times in a google image search). i'm thinking it might be staged, and perhaps it's a dead (or incapacitated) that was simply placed on a bee....it just doesn't look right to me.

deknow


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## Omie (Nov 10, 2009)

I'm thinking maybe that is a solitary bee species in the photo (slightly smaller than honeybee, teddybear-fur, very dark wings) that was placed on a honeycomb for the picture...? That would certainly make the varroa mite look larger in comparison.


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