# Varroa mites on bees. Many years ago 1/3 of the mites were sitting on bees while 2/3



## irwin harlton (Jan 7, 2005)

What do you think of this theory

http://www.elgon.es/diary/?p=799


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## b2bnz (Apr 5, 2009)

If true it would mean that Mite Away Quick Strips which can kill varroa in capped cells, and Drone Brood Trapping Frames with the sacrifice of drone brood and varroa while still capped would be even more effective. Good news!


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Interesting read. Makes me wonder, "Why are some varroa found on adult bees?" And are they unique? Are they relatively young mites hoping to find a bee that ends up in another hive?


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## Eduardo Gomes (Nov 10, 2014)

@ b2bnz 
And also all slow release treatments as Apistan, Apivar, Apiguard... end up catching these varroa, supposed to have a shorter phoretic period.


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## Roland (Dec 14, 2008)

Everything they mentioned in the article is logical, but they are in Europe. When did mites arrive in Europe? Has anyone tested the mites in America for the same pattern?

The converse is probably also true. We strike drone brood every inspection, and therefore most likely select for mites that stay on bees longer. 

Crazy Roland


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## FlowerPlanter (Aug 3, 2011)

So by treating mites we have selectively bred them to be more deadly than before.

How many time have we heard "propping up weak bees"!

Feral bees have over come the mites on there own. How will this impact them. A new breed of super mites created in the hives of inferior treated bees.


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## maudbid (Jul 21, 2014)

Color me skeptical. Is there a link to their research data, methodologies, measurement errors, etc.?


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## beemandan (Dec 5, 2005)

Skeptical too. I don't see any link to a formally published or even unpublished study. I'm not convinced that there is any credibility to their basic premise that the proportion of phoretic mites has changed...but even if so, how did they conclude that the change was driven by treating for mites?
I'd be inclined to guess that these are more folks pushing an agenda.


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## jim lyon (Feb 19, 2006)

I tend to agree with the previous 2 posts. I can only assume their methodology was good as there would be a vast discrepancy in the time of year and amount of brood in the hives when determinations were made. Not saying there isn't some truth to this, just saying I question whether it's actually been proven. I will say it SEEMS like phoretic mites are harder to observe than they were 20 years ago, but It's just my recollection and may well involve a comparison of hives with considerably different mite concentrations.


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## Fusion_power (Jan 14, 2005)

One of the known effects of VSH traits is that more mites are phoretic and fewer are reproductive. In other words, reverse of the trend in the blog. This is presumably because VSH bees disrupt reproductive mites which pushes them back to being phoretic.

I can see two reasons why varroa are more likely to be reproductive today vs 30 years ago. The first is that mites have adapted better to reproducing on A.M.M. vs Apis Cerana. The second is that mites adapted to going reproductive in order to avoid mite treatments. Either way, the result is that mite reproductive efficiency increased.

Reversing this effect would seem to imply that highly mite tolerant bees are the only viable possibility.


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## beemandan (Dec 5, 2005)

jim lyon said:


> it SEEMS like phoretic mites are harder to observe than they were 20 years ago,


There are all sorts of things I find harder to observe than they were 20 years ago....although I'm inclined to chalk it up to eyesight.


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## jim lyon (Feb 19, 2006)

beemandan said:


> There are all sorts of things I find harder to observe than they were 20 years ago....although I'm inclined to chalk it up to eyesight.


Ha ha, yes. Santa listened to my request and I found a really cool lighted pocket magnifying glass in my stocking. I think its going to become my new best friend in the bee yard this year.


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## JWChesnut (Jul 31, 2013)

Google scholar search can find nothing in published sources to lend credibility to the claim. I think the claim is a scrambled game of "telephone" --where some aside in a lecture is taken out of context and inflated. Tthe blog post is authored by a well known "natural beekeeping" advocate, and he is reporting second or third hand a portion of a lecture attended by another public promoter of "natural" beekeeping.

The blog post is constructed to lend an air of credibility to a dubious claim. The cited authority, Manuel Izquierdo Garcia, is a prominent keynote speaker in regional beekeeping fairs and seminars. His keynote speech at many of these events is titled "A new tool to combat Varroa: Oxalic Acid". He appears from his newspaper and lecture citations to be a strong advocate of keeping tight control on Varroa, and is aware new techniques must be adopted to prevent resistance from developing. He is also featured in presentations on the explosion of small hive beetle in Italy and Portugal, and adulterated Chinese honey.

Let us assume for a moment that data supporting the statement actually exists. With that supposition, one can recast the statement: "Enhanced "ankle-biting" behavior in bees, supported by beekeepers that keep their colonies alive, have forced mites to retreat to brood cells. They are unable to migrate away from affected colonies. The strategy of maintaining mite control while encouraging the "best of the breed" artificial breeding selection by queen breeders is paying benefits as hygenic behavior affects Varroa life-cycle and its ability to invade neighboring hives.


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## irwin harlton (Jan 7, 2005)

Thank you,
JWChesnut
good analysis of this

If the time period mites were living on the bees was getting shorter and they were spending more time breeding in the cells ,during our winter broodless period they should be having a big die off......................... maybe


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## RDY-B (May 20, 2007)

THE theory is just to promote the ELGON BEE--certainly you've all heard about the Elgon bee
very big in finland--they are a bee that has extremely high varoa tolerance-a non treatment bee
ELGON--much debate on this subject--RDY-B


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## Eduardo Gomes (Nov 10, 2014)

JWChesnut said:


> He is also featured in presentations on the explosion of small hive beetle in Italy and Portugal, and adulterated Chinese honey.


To the best of my knowledge we do not have an explosion of SHB in Portugal. To my knowledge the portuguese veterinary authorities report that Portugal is a territory without credible sightings of this beetle.

A single blast of an alien species that has recently entered in Portugal and with a negative impact on the beekeeping was velutina wasp. A much more respectable enemy that SHB.


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