# microfauna



## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Jonathan Lundgren spoke about these scorpions and a couple other similar natural predators of varroa mites in a talk he gave this past weekend at the Empire State Honey Producers Association Fall Meeting. He will be doing his own Lab Testing soon.

I asked Jonathan what else do they eat? Everything we do seems to have side effects. Some we may not like or desire. He said they eat some honey and some pollen.

I wonder how many scorpions one would have to have per hive to maintain an equilibrium between enough mites to keep the scorpion alive and a low enough level of mites to keep a colony alive and productive. I imagine there is a limit as to how many varroa mites a scorpion will eat. Or eat in a day. I also imagine that the scorpion won't eat themselves out of varroa mites to the degree they would starve.

Thanks for Posting this Sibylle.


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## 1102009 (Jul 31, 2015)

sqkcrk said:


> Jonathan Lundgren spoke about these scorpions and a couple other similar natural predators of varroa mites in a talk he gave this past weekend at the Empire State Honey Producers Association Fall Meeting. He will be doing his own Lab Testing soon.
> 
> I asked Jonathan what else do they eat? Everything we do seems to have side effects. Some we may not like or desire. He said they eat some honey and some pollen.
> 
> ...


You`re very welcome.
Torben does his tests and observations since 2008, he does scientific work.
The chelifer cancroides is of the spider family and hunts only living prey. He is not eating honey or pollen, but it may seem so, because he is always lubricating his mouth.
He can use 3-4 mites per day, if he goes hungry there is cannibalism.
He eats mites, wax moth larvae and small hive beetle larvae, plus other fauna. 

In former times, when bees were kept in straw hives, they lived in symbiosis with the scorpions. Our modern hives don`t have the habitat for them.

Bees need to have access to every part of the hive, so they are able to distinguish between friend and foe and to eliminate foe as it is done in the tree.
So one has to be careful about giving hiding space to the scorpions, because it could also be a hiding place for the small hive beetle.


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