Bees with resistance to varroa mites

[gavin]

Stuart Roweth's bee gym being put to good use by groomers and biters, though the latter is hard to see. It was clearer in a video in this thread some time back.



The best evidence is mites with pruned legs and cuts in the shell (idiosoma).

[The Drone Ranger]

Hi Gavin
When you have time to watch Ghosts in the hive you will probably change your mind

[gavin]

Watched it, DR. It is worth bearing in mind that all scientists are wrong some of the time. Some are wrong much of the time but Dr Kather isn't in that category.

The work does take things forward. The odour stealth mode is part of the story. How about a mother mite freshly exposed by hygienic behaviour takes a wee while to start smelling like the appropriate bee, a worker out and about. In that time it is particularly vulnerable to the (absolutely uncontestably demonstrated to my mind) grooming and biting, but even after that period when it smells right they can still physically irritate bees and trigger grooming that way.

Please do click that Google Scholar link.

I've looked at fallen mites myself. You get a proportion with legs pruned off, pedipalps, bits of the armour, and also large deep dents one side or the other of the middle of the mite. Those scientists who have invested in the 'they don't bite and groom' idea like to dismiss the dents are due to drying but they usually really don't look like that (though some do). Scientists working on the topic usually have ways of preventing any other artifact, such as other critters taking a chunk out of the mite later, by using sticky boards and carefully looking at mites on their backs.

Give it a try yourself if you have a microscope. (Not lying on your back on a sticky board but looking at mites ... )

Another edit: I wonder if those mites clamped down between segments on bees on the comb are trying to hide while they adjust their odour? That could mean that the combination of hygienic behaviour and grooming/biting is a powerful one - get those pupae-smelling mites quickly out on the comb and they're particularly vulnerable.

[The Drone Ranger]

Hi Prakel
It's a short window of 3 hours for a complete makeover though and only 20 minutes for a shampoo and set




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[The Drone Ranger]

QUOTE=gavin;33309]Watched it, DR. It is worth bearing in mind that all scientists are wrong some of the time. Some are wrong much of the time but Dr Kather isn't in that category.
.[/COLOR][/QUOTE]

Hi Gavin
I am working my way through the links it will take a while starting with the most recent
I read somewhere the dents in carapaces were found to be a genetic defect in the mite ?
I try to keep an open mind rather than allow faith to deny reason
(Imagines Zoroastrians arguing with Scientologists about religion while homeopaths and faith healers duel to the death with ducking stools)
I have looked at quite a lot of varroa under the microscope checking oxalic crystals on the hairy bodies and feet
Up late cleaning some copper boards for PCB's

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[The Drone Ranger]

Hi Gavin
Quite a lot of the links you gave me are saying that varroa are not being removed by grooming

Good for balance though
"ummary — We observed social grooming behavior in the Carniolan bee, Apis mellifera carnica. Bouts
of grooming lasted up to 45 s, and were directed to the wing axis (44.6%), the petiolus (18%) and the ster-
nite regions of abdomen (2.8%) of the receiving bee (41 bees). During grooming, the receiving bees held
their wings perpendicular to the body axis. Groomer bees most often cleaned those body parts which could
not be reached during self-cleaning by receiving bees. During 18% of the grooming time, groomer bees
cleaned their own mouth parts and antennae. The grooming behavior removed dust and pollen from the
wing bases and petiolus and realigned the body hairs. No attempts to remove Varroa mites were
observed during self-cleaning or social grooming behavior."

Bit dry though I like the video presentations
Still working on them

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[gavin]

Bit dry though I like the video presentations
Still working on them

That's the way with science .

Just like hygienic behaviour (opening dodgy cells) sometimes it is targeted against Varroa, sometimes not. Can I point you back to this video? There are things happening all through it including bees 'asking' for grooming with that side to side flick. Good examples of bees grabbing and biting a parasite (I think Braula but they are trying to get Varroa too) from 4 min 19 s and 6 minutes:

http://www.sbai.org.uk/sbai_forum/sh...ll=1#post18103

[prakel]

Bit dry though I like the video presentations
Still working on them

That's the way with science

Good juncture to drift off topic a little . Mark Winston's blog of 28/09/15:

'From There to Here'

http://winstonhive.com/?p=542

[The Drone Ranger]

Hi Gavin
The first victim was a poor old innocent braula caught up in the bees equivalent of a bombing campaign
The second one was a varroa though so point taken
The filming was in daylight ? would that be the difference in allowing them to be spotted
The website given on the video for the poster was a dead end and got some cheeky suggestions from Google
When GCHQ send the boys round I'll be blaming you

Thanks prakel for the link thats been put in the bookmarks for later reading in depth

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNkOOuVYYdI
Pan pipes a blessing or a curse ?
I had to turn the sound off on the video but for those (tone deaf) masochists among you heres a short medley

[gavin]

A curse, definitely, in that context. Chris Slade just posted this on the BBKA Facebook page from the deep south. His bees are whiling away the late November days by cleaning up.

		Christopher Slade 29 November at 13:31
Looking at a varroa floor this morning while the bees were flying busily as if summer at 52F, I saw lots of mites, many of which were short of limbs. I saw 2 headless bees that had somehow got through the mesh and both had several mites. As I watched, 2 bees dragged a white pupa through the entrance and one flew off with it for a few feet. Are they hygienic?