> I am glad to notice that a few respondents to this thread are flirting with the idea that *mites* have behaviors.

I have been accused of flirting in the past, but not with that. However, I have been interested in the behavioral component of mite transmission for at least ten years, when Jasna Kralj wrote about it:

Jasna Kralj, Stefan Fuchs. Parasitic Varroa destructor mites influence flight duration and homing ability of infested Apis mellifera foragers. Apidologie, Springer Verlag, 2006.

They say:
> Returning tests of foragers released at some distance of the hive confirmed that infested bees take longer time to return or do not return at all. The loss of foragers per flight was higher in a highly infested colony compared to a less infested colony. This is interpreted as an adaptive behaviour of the bees to remove the parasites or pathogens from the colony.

> Further, bees may not return to the colony due to drifting into other colonies which is the main path enabling the parasite to spread between colonies. 

However tempting it is to speculate that varroa mites drive behaviors, it still may be simply that bees are just trying to rid the hive of pathogens. We don't know for certain where they go after they leave. Kralj & Fuchs say this about that:

> The similar influence of Nosema sp. and V. destructor on flight behavior, in that foragers might not return to the colony, can be interpreted as a general response of honey bees to diseases to decrease pathogen load within the colonies.

PLB

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