# varroa and Pseudoscorpion



## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

I have seen one occasionally in my hives. I don't think enough to make a difference... but it all adds up doesn't it.


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## casper_zip (Apr 16, 2010)

I killed a regular ole scorpion (stinging lizard) type on the top screen of one of my hives. I don't like these rascals being aroung my place, so I kill the ones I see. They are not the scorpions like the "book" scorpions, tho. These La. ones are too big, and would have to lower his tail to get into the hive.

casper


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## BeeGora (Oct 22, 2013)

So if you go treatment free is there a chance that you'd have these little buggers in the hive?


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

>So if you go treatment free is there a chance that you'd have these little buggers in the hive?

I am treatment free. I have seen pseudoscorpions on occasion in the hives. Not so many that I think they make a big difference...


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## seawrath (May 30, 2015)

MichaeI, know this is an old post. But what if we use the idea of an ecobottom board in conjuction with pseudoscorpions to create a habitat for them to multiply. With enough of them i could see a benefit. I actually envision a bottom board of cardboard rolled up on its end like those cat scratch mats.


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## JRG13 (May 11, 2012)

a couple months back I went to squish a tachinid fly on the window, but I noticed a small 'glob' on a back leg. It was a pseudoscorpion feeding away. I bottled the fly, it died overnight from trying to fly out of the jar the whole time I'm assuming. The pseudoscorpion stayed attached 2-3 days feeding then finally started roaming. I dumped him on top of a nuc at the house, but seeing the behavior on the fly, I'm assuming with the 20,000+ bee legs in a hive to latch onto, varroa would have nothing to fear.


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## seawrath (May 30, 2015)

The youtube video i saw showed a book pseudo scorpion only slightly larger than a vorroa. And the way he was sucking them down id say that was his food of choice . i think a bee would kick it to the curb.


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## marshmasterpat (Jun 26, 2013)

First colony of bees I got were a cut out from a chinaberry tree next to a man's shop. It was hollow and a colony had been there for more or less 3 years (not saying the same one). They had mites and there were several pseudo scorpions in the tree both at the base of the main hollow and at the fork in the tree. I know I found 2 in the hive box I brought back to the house during the first week. 

They were living in the debris that was several inches deep in the base of the tree trunk and fork.

If I remember correctly there was also a millipede living there. Maybe part of the natural hive ecosystem.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

>MichaeI, know this is an old post. But what if we use the idea of an ecobottom board in conjuction with pseudoscorpions to create a habitat for them to multiply.

I came up with that idea more than a decade ago... but I could never get what I felt was a satisfactory equivalent to what I see in a tree. In a tree the comb sort of ends where ever the bees like. Usually with a gap of a couple of inches to the debris at the bottom. The debris is often 4 to 6 inches deep with all sorts of living things in it. Ants, roaches, centipedes, sow bugs, wax moths larvae, debris beetles of several kinds and who knows how many kinds of mites. (they don't call the mites for nothing)

The problem is in a hive I either have to give the bees access to this, in which case they typically haul the trash out, or I don't give them access and the bees lose the ability to run off what they don't want. It's difficult for me to keep that space at the bottom without either tempting them to add some comb or getting too close to the debris and then the wax moths move up into the comb. And all of those experiments were before there were any SHB around. I'm not saying it can't be done, but it was not as simple as I imagined it and I moved on to other things...

>With enough of them i could see a benefit. 

Perhaps.

>I actually envision a bottom board of cardboard rolled up on its end like those cat scratch mats.

Let us know how it works out.


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## JRG13 (May 11, 2012)

seawrath said:


> The youtube video i saw showed a book pseudo scorpion only slightly larger than a vorroa. And the way he was sucking them down id say that was his food of choice . i think a bee would kick it to the curb.


If you put a scorpion in a jar with some mites, I'm sure it would suck them down, but putting them in a hive w/o a bunch of mites conveniently dumped on them is a different story. I think they would be good at cleaning up ones that drop down into the bottom of the hive if you could establish them but I wouldn't expect them to be roaming comb looking for mites, more likely they attach to the first bee they encounter on the bottom board and go for a ride which is typical behavior as well.


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