Chris Slade <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>Have you, with your own eyes, seen bees damaging mites when grooming?   

Hello Chris!

I never witnessed a mite being groomed and damaged in these colonies.   To 
witness this event in these particular colonies by casual observation, 
perhaps may prove to be a difficult task.  Our State Apiarist; Dennis 
vanEngelsdorp will likely attest to these colonies having low mite 
populations, and some difficulty finding many mites during my 2005 queen 
inspection.  So I need to infest a particular bee of forager age and 
follow her to have a better chance to catch the event. 
 
The grooming behavior, seems to be spontaneous, and can involve several 
bees grooming a single bee.  It appears to be a vigorous licking and 
preening type event.  I suspect that it is a cleaning behavior to remove 
bacteria and particles from bees because it appears the bees are using 
their tongues during the event and not mandibles or biting actions, but it 
seems vigorous enough that it could potentially dislodge a mite.  

I have observed that the bee getting the attention will occasionally lift 
a tergite, stretching and bending to allow grooming in these places. I 
have grainy video of a bee getting groomed lifting the left side, either 
3rd or 4th tergite in the proximity of the main portion of the ventriculus 
where varroa have preference.  The grooming will occur spontaneously and 
at the parameter of the nest outside the broodnest area and towards the 
bottom of comb and entrance area.  So it is either to disruptive for the 
grooming to occur in the broodnest, OR I am suspecting that the behavior 
is pronounced only in bees of guard and forager age.

We
>were informed in a lecture last weekend that the damage done to mites is 
post
>mortem.  If this information is correct there isn't much point in 
selecting  on
>the basis of damaged mites found under the mesh floor.

Intresting,
Chris, if it is post mortem, would you think the mite would be more likely 
to fall thru the screen escaping damage?  Or is the damage said to be 
occurring by other insects scavenging or damage by the beekeeper?

>
>If you manage to capture video pictures of bees damaging mites it would
>settle a lot of doubts.

I’ve been observing the behavior in this line for several years, and the 
main reason I want to video the event is that it does not meet the 
description of grooming previously described by Seeley and others, so I 
want to get it documented, or prove that is either not grooming, or 
grooming.  May and June the behavior becomes very prominent, so I hope to 
have something soon. 

Thanks to all that sent advice and info to me both on and off list!

Best Wishes,

Joe Waggle
Derry, PA
“Bees Gone Wild Apiaries”
FeralBeeProject.com
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/HistoricalHoneybeeArticles

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