July l999
ALBERTA BEE NEWS 5
About Varroa
Just Like the Energizer Bunny
by Kenn Tuckey, ph. (780) 4I5-23l4

This spring I conducted a small experiment with my own bees that I had hoped not
to be able to do for some time yet. As I was unwrapping my bees on May 22 (I
know, I know some of you think that is way too late but that could be the topic
of another article) anyway, as I was saying when I unwrapped my bees on May 22 I
discovered that they were infested with varroa mites. I noticed the varroa on
some drone pupae that were located between the bottom and second brood chambers.
I am not the first beekeeper to first find varroa that way. When I tested my
bees with Apistan last spring they were "apparently free" of varroa. I examined
the adult bees in a couple of hives but I didn't spot any varroa that way.
During the course of my work I scraped clump of capped drone brood from the tops
of the frames. Later, on a whim. I picked up two of those clumps and popped them
into a zip-loc bag so that I could show off the varroa to some of my co-workers.
When I got home I removed one of the clumps to examine it more closely, That's
when I noticed how agile and fast varroa are some were on my hand and others
were crawling out of the bag. I quickly closed up the bag and decided it would
be interesting to see how long the varroa would survive away from the hive and
any live bees. I simply kept the plastic bag at room temperature but I did take
precautions to make sure that the sample did not get exposed to direct sunlight.
I tried to remember to check the sample at least once a day to see if the varroa
were still alive. On the evening of May 28 the sixth day there were still live
varroa to be seen through the plastic bag. On May 29,the ninth day there were no
varroa left alive thae I could find so I opened up a pupa and found a live
varroa.

     The pupa still appeared to be in reasonable shape; it was obviously dead
but it had not yet started to decompose. However the outer surfaces of the
clumps (the wax) were beginning to be covered by a healthy growth of moulds. It
took some talking to convince the lady of the house that this was an important
scientific study and it should NOT be chucked into the garbage. The varroa I
released, or another one, continued to live for a few days. On June 2, I had to
open another cell to find a live varroa. Each day from then to June 7 -- Day l6.
I was able to find a live varroa by opening a cell containing a drone pupa. On
June 8 and 9 I was unable to check on my "pets." When I got back to the zip-lock
bag on ) June 10 I was unable to find any varroa alive. By this time the  whole
sample was very badly moulded and the drone pupa had all rotted. The whole mess
was then ceremoniously deposited in the receptacle under our kitchen sink.

I am sometimes asked how long varroa will survive away from bees. I still don't
know but from this little study I know that even under very poor conditions they
can survive for ae least l6 days, One clear implication is that you cannot
quickly put bees back into equipment that has held varroa infested bees and
expect the new bees to stay clean.

MORE STUDY
    As I mentioned these varroa were kept in very poor conditions. I am
fortunate there is no SPCV (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Varroa)! It
would be very interesting to have a whole comb of varroa invested brood and keep
it in a well ventilated location to prevent the mould that I experienced. We
know from our experiences in package bee days that the mould does not always
occur and frequently the pupae can still look pretty good after a winter in
storage. I suspect that under these conditions that varroa will be able to
survive on the dead pupae for much longer.

PRECAUTIONS
    I.Varroa are quick and they are long lived. If you are working in hives that
have a lot of varroa there is a good chance that there will be varroa on your
clothes and you can be the veetor that rnoves varroa around your operation.
    2. If you decide to try an experiment like this make sure thar. you have a
mite-tight screened container to keep the varroa in where you want them. Varroa
on the loose in your home ean precipitate a domestie crisis but varroa loose in
your honey house can contribute to the passing of varroa to the bee operation of
anyone who may stop to visit.

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