>
> >How many mites does it take to kill the larva?


Mites don't kill the* pupae* (they don't do much feeding while the bee is
still a larva)--it is the viruses or bacterial infection from the wound
that kill the pupae.  If the viruses are not of excessively virulent
strains, a pupa of *Apis mellifera* can survive invasion with multiple
foundress mites.

The reason that I specified *A. mellifera* is that a recent study (Page
2016) found that worker pupae of *A. ceranae* apparently exhibit "social
apoptosis" and die if fed upon by a single mite, or even if artificially
wounded.  The study has great implications for the breeding of
mite-resistant *A. mellifera.*

-- 
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

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