How do Varroa Mites Know when to Leave Honey Bee Hives?

[prakel]

A short but interesting article:

http://entomologytoday.org/2014/08/2...-the-bees-wax/

[Neils]

Intersting article, cheers for the link.

[chris]

Yes. And it would imply that a swarm carries more mites than I previously thought.

[Jon]

By losing the ability to distinguish between nurses and foragers when infection rates are high, mites increase their chances of getting a lift from a forager that happens to be visiting from another hive, improving their chances of survival when their current hive faces extinction.

That makes no sense unless it is referring to robbing. Foragers may drift into a hive but they don't 'visit' afaik.

[brecks]

Since Varroa preferentially target drone brood, would it not be reasonable to assume drones play a part in the introduction of varroa to colonies other than their own when they visit and stopover?

[prakel]

That makes no sense unless it is referring to robbing. Foragers may drift into a hive but they don't 'visit' afaik.

Think it may just be a write up mistake, having previously written:

Rita Cervo and her colleagues from the Università degli Studi Firenze tested the mites’ preferences for feeding on hive-bound nurses or roving foragers, including robber bees from other colonies.

Of course, 'roving foragers' leaves some room for imagination but I expect that it may not be uncommon for a drifter who's allowed into a strange hive with a nectar load to find herself back at 'home' after her next sortie.

[wee willy]

I would imagine that the imminent collapse of a hive carrying a heavy mite load would curtail its breeding activity .The colony weakened to the point of becoming over run by robbing bees would trigger the mite to climb aboard the robbers and away to new pastures ?


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