On the 13th, Eddy Lear wrote about bee scorpions, as follows (in small
part):

"Last year around September, a beekeeper who is a major migratory
[beekeeper] within my district warned me that he had varroa in his hives.
I then unfortunately found varroa in one of my hives in December. On
inspection I visited my hives again in February and was astounded not to
find varroa. On closer examination of the brood area I found an abnormal
number of Bee scorpions (Ellingsenuis fulleri)."

   On the 14th Eddy responded to a query by Donald Aiken about the possible
use of bee scorpions as a biocontrol against Varroa and cited a passage
from "Honey Bee Pests, Predators, & Diseases" [1997] ed. by Roger Morse &
Kim
Flottum [on pg 236], a passage not repeated here.

   The 1990 edition of a book by that same name (for those of you who own a
copy), edited by Morse and Nowogrodzki, has a chapter by Dewey Caron and
Kenneth Ross that includes further information (pages 186-187) about
several species of these "bee scorpions" (actually pseudoscorpions, not
true scorpions).  They mentioned the following species:

Chelifer cancroides (Europe)
Cheridium museorum and C. cimicoides (Europe)
Engsenius sculpturatus, E. fulleri, E. ugandanus, and E. somalicus (Africa)
   as well as E. indicus (India)

   Caron and Ross wrote:  "...peudoscorpions that kill wax moth larvae
benefit honey bee colonies.  Furthermore, their consumption of mites in
beehives has been reported in southern and eastern Africa ... and in
Germany ...In India, colonies of bees that had pseudoscorpions were
remarkably free of wax moths and mites (Singh and Venkataraman 1948)."

   On the 15th Mark Hale wrote (in part): "Last year I posted an article
about the bee scorpion. I have had hive sites which have had a very bad
infestation of varroa. If you lifted the lid to the hive you could see
varroa on the backs of a lot of the bees, then [the infestation] would
sudenly vanish." and " Just out of interest sake I find that my SHB
population is kept to a minimum if the bee scorpion is present. Eddy Lear
and I have dicused the matter of the bee scorpion and agree that it plays
some part in the control of varroa. To date I have not treated a single
hive of mine with any form of chemical, not a single loss due to varroa."

   In a book, THE BIOLOGY OF PSEUDOSCORPIONS, by Pete Weygoldt (1969), one
finds (p. 117):  "Chelifer cancroides is often found in beehives....They
are probably carried into the nests phoretically.  Normally the
pseudoscorpions do not harm their hosts; they like the warmth of the nests
and feed on other animals living there --- wax moths or beetle larvae, for
example.  There are, however, some species [of pseudoscorpions] that use
their hosts as prey.  The tropical genus Ellingsenius (Cheliferidae) is
well know to bee researchers (Orosi-Pal 1938); these species live in bee
nests throughout their lives.  During swarming they attach themselves to
bees and are thus transported to the new nests."

   A 1968 book by J.L. Cloudsley-Thompson, SPIDERS, SCORPIONS, CENTIPEDES,
& MITES, has several relevant passages, including the following:

p. 128:  "It has been pointed out that a few species [of pseudoscorpions]
inhabit a comparatively dry environment, but the marjority are extremely
susceptible to dessication and must be provided with moisture if kept in
captivity.  Some species are light-shy, but in Chelifer cancroides no
negative phototaxis has been observed..."

p. 132:  "...false-scorpions [Ellingsenius hendrickxi] often attach
themselves to the legs of the bees and sometimes in numbers combine to
attack both workers and queens, which are killed and eaten like ordinary
prey.  The [pseudoscorpions] forces its chelicerae into the articulations
of the legs of the bee at intersegmental membranes and feeds upon it..."

p. 140:  "Levi (1948) found that in Wisconsin the life cycle of Chelifer
cancroides also occupies a year, but Vachon (1938) found that in France the
same species took two years to reach maturity."

********

   In other words, one species or another of "bee scorpion" lives in
several countries, even in the United States.  Perhaps one or more of those
species could serve as an acceptable biocontrol.  However, one must be VERY
careful as to which species is adopted, since many species may cause more
harm than good.

   Chelifer cancroides, a cosmopolitan species, seems to cause the least
harm (with the recently noted --- by Eddy Lear and Mark Hale --- possible
exception of Ellingsenuis fulleri).  In the U.S., one would need no import
permits for C. cancroides, since apparently that species already lives in
Wisconsin (and most likely elsewhere).  As a start, the following
publication might prove useful:

Levi, H.W. (1948)  Notes on the life history of the Pseudoscorpion Chelifer
cancroides (Linn.) (Chelonethida.)  TRANS. AMER. MICR. SOC., 67:290-298.

**********

   Remember, though, that any pesticide that harms varroa and tracheal
mites would also likely eliminate pseudoscorpions, since all are arachnids.


                                                        Adrian

[With all best wishes for the Holiday Season and sweet dreams --- not about
sugar plum fairies --- but about the possibility of bee scorpions someday
solving some of your problems.]

Adrian M. Wenner                    (805) 963-8508 (home phone)
967 Garcia Road                     (805) 893-8062  (UCSB FAX)
Santa Barbara, CA  93106  [http://www.beesource.com/pov/wenner/index.htm]

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*
*    "To have one's opinions prefabricated can be a source of great
*   comfort and relief.  It relieves one of the responsibility of
*   choice."
*                                          Murray Levin, 1971
*
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