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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology

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From:
charles Linder <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Thu, 17 Apr 2014 08:39:34 -0500
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Tracheal mites shift from older bees to younger bees by smell so there is a
possibility that Varroa has some sort of sensing mechanism that prompts
them to shift to the robbing bees.

Thanks Randy and bill.. great info...  My wondering  is based on if we may
be missing something we can use against them (the mites)  

I laid in bed last night pondering the issue and the math.  Here is what I
came up with.  The study I read (don't recall whos it was)  showed an
increase of 1600-3000 mites from fall loading

Now being generous I used a number of 50,000 bees for a good healthy hive.
At 3% infestation rate that would be 1500 mites (phoretic of course)

Lets say a dying hive would only have 10,000 mites  at a 30% infestation
rate that's roughly 3300 Mites.

According to that study  literally every mite from a collapsing hive would
have to move successfully.  And whats more  that would mean there has to be
a collapsing hive for every good hive.

That doesn't match the reality in my area.    Surely I could see a spike,
but not the levels I saw reported.....

Fully understanding that the data presented may be from an area high
commercial operations and many more hives per mile.

But back to my train of thought.  Lets assume there is some chemical signal
that triggers mites to suddenly find a new host,  and that the mite can
successfully and quickly transfer to a robber that's in the hive for only a
minute or two??  How and why?  And can we use that for a new mite trap???

Or  lets say daylight time (that Aug time frame seems suspicious to me)
causes them to either breed more,  or mature differently,  can that be used
against them

I will leave it at that for the moment,  it completes my thought train for
now.  Much appreciate the inputs and discussion.

Charles

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