J. Waggle wrote:
> Hello All,
> 
> I’m searching for procedures for harvesting mites and how to infest a 
> specific bee.

Your idle amusements are a waste of time, didn't your mother teach you 
that Joe? :)

> I don't know any good ways to do this,,, but,,,
> I plan on harvesting my varroa from capped drone cells, and choosing 
> mature female varroa from the bunch.

You're doing pioneering work here Joe. I do know that your window of 
opportunity to harvest a mature female from a capped cell is going to be 
short. I think you'd want to be looking for emerging drones and then 
you're likely to get the foundress mite and 1 or 2 of her mature 
offspring, and some number of immature females. More than a few days 
before emergence and the female offspring might not be mature enough to 
survive.

You might be just as successful putting a screened bottom on a hive and 
periodically checking it for naturally fallen mites that are still 
crawling around. I think that's what I'd do.

I have heard that mites transfer a lot. I don't know if that's true. 
Their phoretic phase lasts from 3 to 10 days during which time they 
feed, usually tucked in between the abdominal segments on the ventral 
side of the bee. They're hard to spot in this location.

They also won't feed on a dead bee for very long. I'll bet, if you could 
locate bees with feeding varroa on them (easier said than done), put 
them in a jar and kill them (as humanely as possible please!) then put 
some healthy young nurse bees in the jar that the mites would jump on 
them like a dog on a bone..

> Also, I want to mark the bee with queen paint so I can track her easier 
> with the camera,  do you think this would pose a problem for the validity 
> of the experiment?

I can't see how unless someone were to argue that the grooming bees were 
really trying to remove the marking paint instead of the mite, then your 
carefully orchestrated and photographically documented experiment would 
prove nothing! Hah! That might happen here on Bee-L, they're a tough 
crowd :)

> If so, I think I may be able to work around this problem as I discovered 
> last season that the grooming bees are consumed in the event and can be 
> carefully scooped off the comb and into a container, and they usually 
> continue with the grooming sequence and fly back to the hive when finished.

Presumably leaving behind a beaten and bloodied varroa mite.. This might 
be a good approach because I think your biggest challenge would be to 
initiate grooming, or having to wait for grooming to be initiated, in a 
controlled enviroment where you can observe and document the event.

> Anybody have experience with these types of experiments?

Not me Joe, but I've seen the kind of grooming behavior you're talking 
exhibited by my bees from time to time- on the landing board of the 
hive. I've thought of photographing the event. Now that I know you're 
going to do it, I won't bother!

George-
---------------------
George Fergusson
Whitefield Maine

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