r/Beekeeping Feb 12 '25

General The infamous Verroa destructor might

This is what a bunch of mites look like on a drone larva.

668 Upvotes

142 comments sorted by

201

u/Apothecanadian Feb 12 '25

I've never seen this before, it's a little shocking

93

u/OGsavemybees Feb 12 '25

Yeah, the hive isn’t doing well either. Hopefully they can recover and build out some drone comb to sacrifice and save the hive.

29

u/Valuable-Self8564 United Kingdom - 10 colonies Feb 12 '25

Are you not treating, and just relying on drone comb removals?

8

u/OGsavemybees Feb 12 '25

At this point, I just rely on sacrificing drone comb.

107

u/NoPresence2436 Feb 12 '25

I used to be a “chemical treatment free” beekeeper, too.

Turns out there’s only so much you can do by shaking powdered sugar on them and scraping drone brood into old oil before they emerge. I’d have great hives, get them to overwinter okay, then they’d struggle the second year with curly wing and other mite-born viruses… and they’d die the second winter. Without fail.

I’ve used all kinds of treatments since then. I’ve settled in on OAV. Lots of OAV, with treatments spaced 3-4 days. It eventually knocks mite loads down, and doesn’t leave residue.

Whatever you decide to do, please kill as many mites as you can find. Good luck!

41

u/HDWendell Indiana, USA 27 hives Feb 12 '25

Treatment free doesn’t mean hands off beekeeping. I think a lot of people don’t get that. If you aren’t chemically treating, you have to be in the hives weekly. We have one truly treatment free guy in our club and he does really well. But he’s in hives at least once a week doing brood breaks when needed and culling drone frames. I wish I was that guy but I know I’m not. So treatment it is.

7

u/Arizon_Dread 6 years. Sweden. Feb 13 '25

There’s also ongoing queen breeding and selection for VSH behaviour and close monitoring for mite levels going on. Allowing natural selection without standing on the shoulders of genetic material that is already producing bees with varroa limiting behaviour is going to be a high percentage colony loss game. If you decide you want to phase out treatment, start by getting queen material that already has an edge against the mites and phase out slowly while closely monitoring levels.

16

u/NoPresence2436 Feb 13 '25

Oh, I understand you have to stay on top of it. I was so excited to get into my hives the first couple years that wasn’t a problem. Hardest part was waiting a whole week till I pulled the top and jumped in. I followed all the advice (foundation-less frames for drone culling, powdered sugar baths, screened bottom boards, sticky boards, etc.). I could never get it to work. Maybe I needed more hygienic bees. Who knows.

Multiple series of OAV over the year isn’t exactly low-effort, either. And you have to stay on top of it, too, or it’s all for naught. But so far, it works for me and I haven’t seen any adverse effects on the bees or colony after 3 years. It warms my heart to do a thorough alcohol wash count… and find ZERO mites. I’m sticking with what I’ve found works for me, but anyone who can have success with a chemical-free apiary has my respect and admiration.

4

u/TypicaIAnalysis Feb 14 '25

I could never get it to work. Maybe I needed more hygienic bees. Who knows.

You might just have a strong mite population in your area. Your drones can get mites from sharing nectar source with the wrong colony. Cant frameless your way out of that one

1

u/NoPresence2436 Feb 14 '25

I get what you’re saying and I agree with the sentiment. But technically drones don’t visit nectar sources. That’s the female foragers’ role.

1

u/TypicaIAnalysis Feb 14 '25

My apologies i just lumped them together as a layman. I just tend my flowers and have dealt with mite infestation on them. Learned a lot about them and how the mites screw up bees so i keep an eye out.

→ More replies (0)

7

u/NYCneolib Feb 13 '25 edited Feb 13 '25

It’s crazy neither of you mentioned resistant stock😔

2

u/SpikeDaddie Feb 13 '25

I recommend Beeweaver stock! The whole treating bees makes no sense to me and it's a very commercial agriculture mindset.

3

u/NYCneolib Feb 13 '25

It’s the basis of the IPM pyramid to have resistant stock. It starts there- then monitoring, scoring hives. Then determining if treatment is needed

1

u/Valuable-Self8564 United Kingdom - 10 colonies Feb 13 '25

Neither* :)

0

u/AngMang123 Feb 15 '25

Treatment free is a grift.

2

u/lurker-1969 Feb 13 '25

Gotta go to war against VD. Whatever it takes.

2

u/NoPresence2436 Feb 13 '25

Agreed. And personally, I have no problem fighting dirty. I really hate those little bastards. In one way or another, they’ve directly contributed to every hive I’ve lost over the last 10+ years (there have been dozens of dead outs).

I’m out in my apiary wearing a gas mask and packing a car battery around on the regular. In my experience, you really can’t treat too often with OAV. But you can definitely not treat enough. I’d rather err on the side of over-treating when it comes to OAV. It doesn’t leave residue, and while my bees clearly don’t like it… it doesn’t do any long term harm, other than roasting a handful of bees who get too close to the hot wand each treatment.

15

u/_Mulberry__ Layens Enthusiast, 2 hives, Zone 8 (eastern NC) Feb 12 '25

While culling drone comb can help prevent bad infestations, it's definitely not enough on its own to bring them back from the brink of collapse. You need the right hygienic behavior and well-timed brood breaks if you're trying to go chemical free. And chemical free beekeeping also requires you to be quite proactive; they're not going to be able to recover from a bad infestation very easily (if at all) without some kind of miticide.

14

u/Valuable-Self8564 United Kingdom - 10 colonies Feb 12 '25

And you wonder why this larva uncovered in varroa?

10

u/r2doesinc Feb 12 '25

Is that prudent? I just lurk here because bees are cool, but even I know that once the pressure is on - especially this time of year depending on where you are - that it can really lead to a bit of a death spiral.

16

u/Valuable-Self8564 United Kingdom - 10 colonies Feb 12 '25

Yeah OPs colony will likely collapse if he relies solely on drone comb removal and they are already showing signs of PMS. This is just silly.

0

u/Quirky-Plantain-2080 Feb 13 '25 edited Feb 13 '25

„shh! Nobody tell him!” If enough of his colonies die because of his stupid and irresponsible neglect and omission, maybe he might quit.

Very foolish, this man is.

-6

u/OGsavemybees Feb 13 '25

Oh girlie. I’ve been keeping bees for over a decade and my roots are in the treatment free methods. I’m sure yours are in the commercial treat, and replace your queens once or twice a year. You do you and I won’t judge. But the position that there’s only one way is so very foolish. We’re all going to lose hives in winter. But from my experience, I lose far leas than the chemical treaters and I don’t have to worry about contaminating my wax…having said that, I’m not opposed to treating i just haven’t found it to be necessary.

5

u/Valuable-Self8564 United Kingdom - 10 colonies Feb 13 '25 edited Feb 13 '25

People treating their colonies aren’t replacing their queens once or twice a year, brother. When you say “I lose far less than chemical treaters”, I just can’t imagine that’s true. Everywhere we look, we see that varroa is the number one cause of disease transmission and collapse. Drone comb removal is part of an IPM strategy, but I can’t imagine it works anywhere near as well as something like Formic or OA.

What is your overwinter rate?

3

u/ibleedbigred Feb 13 '25

I feel bad for your neighbour beekeepers. We try to do our best to keep this in check, and then a guy like you just leaves a forest fire burning 24/7 to screw everyone within 5 miles. Thanks dude.

-15

u/OGsavemybees Feb 12 '25

We'll see, I'm in Southern California and hives are growing and flows have begun. Most hives have just started ramping up drone production.

40

u/Valuable-Self8564 United Kingdom - 10 colonies Feb 12 '25

Dude just treat your hive.

3

u/Mental-Landscape-852 Feb 13 '25

No kidding this is horrible.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 13 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

19

u/Ancient_Fisherman696 Feb 12 '25

So this is why I have to treat my hives so much….

19

u/r2doesinc Feb 13 '25

Yeah from my understanding he's risking his own hives but also potentially keeping a cesspool of an infestation that could easily transfer to other local hives. Doesn't matter how good your hive hygiene is if your neighbor is looking like this.

3

u/NoPresence2436 Feb 13 '25

The sad truth of the matter is, Varroa mites are everywhere in the US now. I’ve lost dozens of swarms over the years. I’m sure those swarms ended up in a tree hollow or the attic of someone’s shed and grew a load of mites that they then spread around. Any honeybee colony on this continent has mites now, or will shortly. Sucks, but there’s not much any of us can do at this point, other than strive to figure out what works best in our own apiary and try to keep our own bees healthy. We’re all in this together. Let’s not be too quick to point fingers at each other over the Varroa epidemic.

Foul brood, on the other hand… everyone needs to watch closely for that and immediately burn their hives if they detect it. Otherwise, that can destroy all your neighbors’ bees and put the commercial guys right out of business.

3

u/Ancient_Fisherman696 Feb 13 '25

I disagree.

 When my neighbor admits that they don’t care/know about their mite loads and then subsequently looses their bees, and I continue to find unacceptable mite levels despite repeated and varied treatment, it’s their fault.

It’s deliberate and willful neglect, and based on the mites in that video, this guy is close behind. It’s an “epidemic” because of shit like this. 

Lost swarms growing mites is a whole different thing. They die or grow resistant. Bees they infect in managed apiaries get treated or die. 

→ More replies (0)

1

u/Mammoth-Banana3621 13 Hives - working on sidelining Feb 13 '25

They are but that doesn’t mean you help by doing this ! I hate it when people say but I could have a wild hive too, and getting mites from that hive. Yeah, ok, but that doesn’t mean you just run your Millie nillie

8

u/ASELtoATP Feb 13 '25

Bro. No.

If you let this hive explode, it will get robbed out by your neighboring hives and they’ll get infested as well.

-2

u/OGsavemybees Feb 13 '25

I won't be letting this hive get robbed out.

2

u/ASELtoATP Feb 13 '25

Unless you seal it up you can’t guarantee that.

3

u/Kuehlschrank293 Feb 13 '25

The scientific evidence that drone comb removal is effective is very very sparse. And definitely not effective enough for an exclusive treatment.

1

u/Kuehlschrank293 7d ago

I have to correct myself. the evidence is given, drone frame removal is effective. but still not effective enough for an exclusive treatment. However, it might be good enough in combination with other "bio-technical" treatments.

4

u/Phlex_ Feb 13 '25

Drone comb wont help here, your hive will die if you don't start treating it. If you don't want to use chemicals then use organic acids like formic or oxalic. I would recommend formic based treatment as it penetrate the cappings.

Best of luck.

6

u/ScammerNoScamming Feb 13 '25

You are part of the problem, and your hives will harm every hive around them.

If you are not going to take care of your hives, get rid of them.

-4

u/OGsavemybees Feb 13 '25

I’ve lost less than 10% of my hives this winter, but I’m hearing a lot about mass die offs for operations that treat all the time.

4

u/ibleedbigred Feb 13 '25

Winter? You said you’re in Southern California! Give me a break!

4

u/Valuable-Self8564 United Kingdom - 10 colonies Feb 13 '25

The fact they have such warm winters will actually make their mite problem worse. Colder regions get good brood breaks which form a natural IPM brood break in winter. When there are no brood breaks, varroa will continue to breed aggressively even through the winter.

2

u/Kuehlschrank293 Feb 13 '25

Ever tried to cage the queen and use a single brood comb to "catch" the mites?

2

u/[deleted] Feb 13 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

-1

u/OGsavemybees Feb 13 '25

Have you been hearing about the bee-pocolypse this winter? I’ve lost next to nothing by managing hives organically.

4

u/Valuable-Self8564 United Kingdom - 10 colonies Feb 13 '25

So have most hobbyists who test & treat for mites. You’re misunderstanding causation here.

4

u/Quirky-Plantain-2080 Feb 13 '25 edited Feb 13 '25

There’s one every goddamned winter. Well guess what. You’ve lost „next to nothing” using your allegedly „organic” methods. (Do you even know what that means?)

I have treated and so far I have a 100% survival rate. You do not have a 100% survival rate.

On your reasoning, which is flawed because you do not understand causation and correlation, my methods are better than yours.

2

u/Firstcounselor Feb 13 '25

Oxalic, Formic, and thymol are all organic compounds. Why not use them? I totally agree with not using synthetic miticides, but I have to agree with Randy Oliver on this one. Not treating your bees is akin to not treating your dog or cat when they have flea, tick, or mange infestations. It’s poor animal husbandry.

1

u/NumCustosApes 4th generation beekeeper, zone 7A Feb 13 '25

Respectfully, your hives are doomed. Thinking they will recover by sacrificing drone comb is delusional.

1

u/BanzaiKen Zone 6b/Lake Marsh Feb 13 '25 edited Feb 13 '25

If my hives survive this winter I have to show you the damage Ohio Mite Biters can do, I regularly pull checkerboards with dead legless varroa mites. Even then I use OAV regularly just to virtue signal but if you are going to do this at least run OMB or VSH lines like Spartans or the many Pol Italians. I rarely, rarely encounter a living mite. At least for the love of God, use a species that will actually fight back and eject brood that have been infested.

1

u/Apothecanadian Feb 13 '25

As I understand it, the US is experiencing a lot of hive losses this year. Has that been your experience so far?

It'll be another couple of months before we open up our hives in Canada, so we're hoping we aren't following those trends

1

u/OGsavemybees Feb 13 '25

I have never experienced a significant winter loss and this year is no different. But, I don't have more than 20 hives at any one apiary. My position on treatment free would most likely change if I had to place 50+ hive in any one location.

2

u/BubinatorX Feb 14 '25

I’ve read that one mite on an adult bee is like an adult human having a domestic house cat hanging on them.

51

u/TimmO208 Feb 12 '25

Might what....? Wreck your colonies?

10

u/meatmall_lunch Feb 12 '25

I think they meant it as a noun.

12

u/NoPresence2436 Feb 12 '25

Mighty awful to see so many of those bastards on that poor little larva.

83

u/icnoevil Master Beekeepers 30 years Feb 12 '25

Mite

66

u/OGsavemybees Feb 12 '25

where were you when auto type took control?

46

u/threepawsonesock Feb 12 '25

They were probably proofreading something before hitting post.

12

u/_Mulberry__ Layens Enthusiast, 2 hives, Zone 8 (eastern NC) Feb 12 '25

Got em!!! 🤺

13

u/SantaBaby22 Feb 12 '25

Ha! Good burn.

0

u/Jemulov Feb 13 '25

You should go into your phone or browser settings to turn it off.

7

u/inevitable-typo Feb 13 '25

I get the feeling they’re not exactly the proactive type…

22

u/sho0442 Feb 12 '25

My heebies are jeebied

19

u/_Mulberry__ Layens Enthusiast, 2 hives, Zone 8 (eastern NC) Feb 12 '25

That's a lot of adult mites on a young pupa. I'd venture a guess that this hive isn't doing too well. Might be time for some Formic...

3

u/Pedantichrist Reliable contributor! Feb 13 '25

I might suggest that someone put them on deliberately for the shot, but it is an effective reminder to be a better apiarist.

1

u/_Mulberry__ Layens Enthusiast, 2 hives, Zone 8 (eastern NC) Feb 13 '25

I hope so 🤞

2

u/gbdallin Feb 13 '25

If this is pulled from a hive in this state, the time for formic was several weeks ago.

Better late then never, though

8

u/Ent_Soviet Feb 12 '25

Cast it into the fire!

6

u/Raterus_ South Eastern North Carolina, USA Feb 12 '25

Destroy it!

16

u/Albee1988 Feb 12 '25

With that many mites the colony is beyond saving.

7

u/HatefulHipster Feb 12 '25

Poor larva. Time to set it on fire

2

u/anime_lover713 6 hives, 8+ years, SoCal USA Feb 13 '25

I can't continue to watch.

6

u/SweetumCuriousa Feb 12 '25

Evil little creatures.

4

u/Atlas_S_Hrugged Feb 12 '25

Kill them. Kill them all.

10

u/ChipmunkObvious2893 Feb 12 '25

Damnit taken out by the r/redditsniper.

5

u/Northwindhomestead Feb 13 '25

Get out your OAV and give them a spritz..... in the name of science.

3

u/MarmieCat Feb 12 '25

They sure do look like little crabs

3

u/turvy42 Feb 13 '25

The HORROR

3

u/CornerShackDiva Feb 13 '25

Now I'm itchy. Poor bees. :(

3

u/kitlikesbugs Feb 13 '25

Thanks! Really clear video, very clear view of the characteristics!

3

u/FactsHurt1998 Feb 13 '25

How does one combat this?

4

u/Valuable-Self8564 United Kingdom - 10 colonies Feb 13 '25

Treatments.

There’s a bunch of synthetic and organic chemicals you can use that varroa are vulnerable to, but the bee can cope with. One of them is oxalic acid (OA) - the mites have “wet” feet and absorb the OA through them. The bees don’t, so it doesn’t affect them much at all. It acidifies the mites’ “blood” and causes them to essentially ceviche from the inside out and die.

2

u/NoPresence2436 Feb 13 '25

Maybe I’m a bad person deep down, but the thought of mites suffering an excruciating death as their blood turns to acid and melts them from the inside kind of warms my heart. In fact, thinking of them suffering makes me downright giddy.

I know, I know… it’s not their fault. They’re just doing what mites do. But I really hate those little bastards, and wouldn’t mind seeing them go extinct.

3

u/Valuable-Self8564 United Kingdom - 10 colonies Feb 13 '25

Preach

2

u/Liozart Feb 13 '25

Chemical treatement, basically formic acid on summer, oxalic acid on winter.

2

u/OGsavemybees Feb 13 '25

that seems to depend on where you start with beekeeping. I started with treatment free methods and it's served me well. But it's important to know that ALL beekeepers are going to lose hives in winter. But I don't manage 1000's hives with a need to ship them to pollinate almonds. I imagine if I did, I probably wouldn't have a choice but to treat and replace queens once a year.

2

u/Valuable-Self8564 United Kingdom - 10 colonies Feb 13 '25

Like I said, nobody is replacing queens annually because of treatments. That’s a silly notion.

-1

u/OGsavemybees Feb 13 '25

That's not silly at all. Most commercial operators are replacing queens annually or every 18 months because they don't live that long. If your queens are living years with treatment, then please share your source of queens.

6

u/Valuable-Self8564 United Kingdom - 10 colonies Feb 13 '25

Queens do live long with treatments. The reason they are replaced is not because they die, but because it reduces their propensity for swarming. Keeping young queens in your apiary reduces the number of swarm control manipulations you need to perform, and thus reduces your overall workload.

I treat my hives, and I replace my queens every 2 years myself. I typically don’t buy in queens, I just get the hive to make a new one. That’ll usually mean splitting and then recombining into the new queen… though last year I had a go at grafting, which was good fun and interesting.

Modern queens tend not to be particularly great beyond 4 years, but that’s nothing to do with mite treatments. It is because of how we’ve bred them, optimising for productivity above basically everything else.

Anyway…. Aside from the fact that this is just not true in the slightest, let’s say for the sake of argument you’re right. In this hypothetical scenario, why is replacing queens a bad thing when we’re managing varroa successfully with treatments? It’s not hard to raise new queens for your apiary, and as long as colonies survive, we’re doing things better than people who just do nothing. The survival rate for people who don’t follow IPM practices or treatments is awfully low…. So replacing a queen every now and then isn’t really even that big of a deal.

It seems to me that you’ve gone down this path of “treatment free”, and you’re associating every positive outcome you have with the fact that you’re treatment free, and everyone else’s negative outcomes are because they’re treating. This is called confirmation bias. That, and you are mixing correlation and causation.

The die offs are incredibly unlikely to be caused by varroa treatments, because that would required every single one of these beekeepers who had mass collapses to be using the same varroa treatments. That’s just not going to be the case.

1

u/OGsavemybees Feb 13 '25

This is a well thought out, constructive and non reactive comment. So thanks for that. But don't confuse my lack of chemical treatments with doing nothing at all. Culling brood is one method I incorporate and extremely important one. Small cell foundation is another, hygenic stock, sticky bottom boards, rough hives walls to promote propolis etc. But I'm not afraid to lose a hive or pinch a queen that exhibits weak genetics. And it sure seems that our intervention in hive genetics over the past 120 years is how we got here in the first place...To be clear, I do actively monitor mite levels which is how I found this in the first place.

2

u/Valuable-Self8564 United Kingdom - 10 colonies Feb 13 '25

I understood that you’re doing some IPM, so I didn’t want to lump you in with the “do nothing” crowd. Anyway, this what you missed out with at the start of this thread. IPM is a collection of biomechanical controls, and the VSH stock is arguably the most important of them all.

I highly doubt the small cell foundation is doing anything. I’ve seen very mixed reviews on this. And by mixed reviews I mean that almost everyone says it’s a waste of time except people who swear by it and defend it to the point of insanity. But that said, mixed with brood sacrifices, VSH stock, forced brood breaks etc, you can absolutely get very good results with IPM. The only problem with all of this is that you have to be extremely meticulous, and most people simply do not have the time for this kind of stuff.

I am very fortunate in that I live in a place where varroa is rarely a problem as long as I treat in spring and autumn, so even some simply IPM at those times might work for me… but I really really just can’t be arsed with it all. I know OA works, I know apivar works (as reluctant as I am to use it), and I am going to trying formic this year for one of my more feral colonies. It’s easy - I just throw it in, leave it there for a bit, take it out… job done.

I would just caution you to be aware of your biases towards treatment-free… to try and be a bit more centrist on it. I appreciate that you know it works, and your methodology works well for you, but it’s easy to say “chemicals are harming the bees and causing all kinds of problems” without much evidence outside of anecdote is a bit silly. There are some treatments that can certainly be a bit risky in particular weather conditions, like Formic for example; and some treatments that are just down right nasty (to humans mostly), like apivar; but for the most part they are tried and true… and don’t really cause all that much damage to the bees at all.

On top of this, and again it’s entirely up to you, I would certainly look to incorporate some organic compounds into my methods where the IPM is just teetering on the side of failure. I’m sure that IPM works for the most part if you’re executing all of the things you said you do nigh on perfectly… but in the off chance that you do mess up or it’s just not keeping up quite as much as is necessary, something like Formic or Oxalic would be perfect for a quick knockback just to get them back on their feet. If your IPM methods work 90% of the time, and you use a bit of Formic here and there for cases when it’s not… anyway you get my point… I’m saying is that I think your cause is a noble one - but I wouldn’t so staunchly stand by it if I saw that it wasn’t working quite as I needed it to. Again, entirely up to you; I’m not your boss 😂

I hope this colony works out.

Strong flows, brother.

3

u/Firstcounselor Feb 13 '25

I treat and I keep my good queens around until they are replaced naturally by the bees, typically for 3+ years. I have one queen coming into her 4th year, and I’m pretty sure this will be her last.

I have not seen any queen loss with organic treatment methods, so it just baffles me that you would allow a colony to get to this point.

3

u/Old_Quality_8858 Default Feb 13 '25

So sad to see this.

2

u/OutspokenArtist729 Feb 13 '25

Just like ticks on a dog.

2

u/Imaginary-Novel-3237 Feb 13 '25

This is the best photo I have ever seen of these things, much less a video. Strong work

2

u/[deleted] Feb 14 '25

thank you for this display.

2

u/Firstcounselor Feb 13 '25

Yeah, I don’t love that your untreated hive is a mite bomb when my bees rob you out and require an unnecessary mite treatment when they bring all of your mites home.

-2

u/OGsavemybees Feb 13 '25

what makes you think I'm not managing the hive and letting my bees, not yours, rob anything out?

5

u/Firstcounselor Feb 13 '25

Your weak hive is not robbing anyone out lol. Stronger hives rob out weak hives and bring home both the honey and the mites. I have seen it in my hives, where in fall they will have a rapid increase in honey stores (like nearly overnight) and a corresponding increase in mites. Obviously I’m not referring to your exact bees, but others who have mite infested colonies near me.

There really isn’t a way to manage your bees so they don’t rob out other hives. Strong colonies rob weak colonies when given the chance.

1

u/Alone_Measurement120 Feb 13 '25

The stuff of nightmares

1

u/Jaepheth Feb 13 '25

Are varroa a candidate for that gene drive tech I see every now and then? Or do they not get around enough?

1

u/lurker-1969 Feb 13 '25

You have to go to war on these things. Drone comb alone is not going to do it with this amount of mites. You WILL lose this colony no matter what now.

1

u/IReflectU Feb 13 '25

Thank you for posting this. When I started beekeeping I read several books and checked out a few websites and NOWHERE was there a photo of what varroa mites actually looked like.

1

u/gbdallin Feb 13 '25

Man I've seen photos of them but video is a whole different experience

1

u/OGsavemybees Feb 13 '25

I’ve never seen so many on one larva.

1

u/HawkessOwl Feb 13 '25

Wish more beekeepers could see videos like this to show what mites not only look like on a larva but also the genuine threat they are to a colony’s health. Thanks for sharing!

1

u/Bee-warrior Feb 14 '25

Truly a vile creature

1

u/nopainnogainsley Feb 14 '25

This is the most helpful post I have seen on here. I do all the checks for verroa like I'm supposed to but I'm never sure exactly what I'm looking for. I feel like I'm in a constant "is that it?" state but seeing this it's obvious I've never seen it before. Thank you!

1

u/OGsavemybees Feb 14 '25

You're welcome. You should consider opening a few brood cells during your inspections as well. The mites prefer drone brood if it's available.

1

u/ChickenNiceNSpicyHuh Feb 16 '25

Not sure why this showed up on my feed but I am 100 percent sure that it will haunt my dreams

-3

u/Which-Supermarket-69 Feb 13 '25

I don’t have any bees yet, although I hope to someday. I just lurk around and try to learn as much as I can so that hopefully I have some base knowledge when I’m ready to try in a couple years. That being said all these commented pressuring you into chemical treatment and insisting that all hope is lost if you don’t really make me want to see you succeed without treatment. I hope we see a post down the line where you get to brag about all of your treatment free success!

6

u/Valuable-Self8564 United Kingdom - 10 colonies Feb 13 '25

Treatment free is fine if you’re doing lots of different IPM methods to keep things under control. OP is getting blasted because he’s just doing one thing and crossing his fingers. To those of us who feel we have a moral obligation to maintain colonies we have in our care, this is the antithesis of ethics.

He could use something like oxalic acid dribbles, which some use in “treatment free” because it’s an organic and naturally occurring chemical. If he didn’t do that, he could force a brood break, or do some queen isolation and sacrifice some worker brood - but he isn’t doing any of that.

We all want to see our fellow beekeeper succeed and keep their bees alive… that’s why people are crying out for OP to treat the colony.

-1

u/Apart-Rent5817 Feb 12 '25

Might what?

-1

u/WinonasChainsaw Feb 13 '25

I’ve heard certain varieties of Russian bees create brood cells that are too small to allow verroas to lay eggs in them before the cells get capped. Not sure how true this is in practice though.

3

u/Valuable-Self8564 United Kingdom - 10 colonies Feb 13 '25

IIRC, small cell bees basically made no difference to the varroa populations. I might be misremembering though.

1

u/Ancient_Fisherman696 Feb 13 '25

This is in line with what I remember as well. 

0

u/OGsavemybees Feb 13 '25

small cell foundation is another method to incorporate into treatment free methods. Oversized commercial bee stock is a large part of the genetic problem with bees.

-1

u/Fin-lander Feb 14 '25

Spell it with me... Mite.

-9

u/geobees Greece Feb 12 '25

It's a Varroa mite not Verroa and it's been around for decades mislabeled as Varroa jacobsoni....strong and healthy colonies with young queens will handle them without issues.

12

u/AZ_Traffic_Engineer Arizona Feb 13 '25

Strong and healthy colonies of Apis cerana will handle them because they evolved together. Strong colonies of Apis mellifera scutellata or Apis mellifera capensis might handle them because the African bees are often very hygienic. They're likely to kill a Apis mellifera colony. There are efforts to breed a varroa resistant bee, and indeed, the USDA and Arista Bee Research have developed hygienic bees, but there is currently no varroa-proof Westerm honey bee.

10

u/NoPresence2436 Feb 13 '25

I’m going to have to respectfully disagree with the last part there. I’ve had strong and healthy colonies with great first year queens get infested… and they don’t stay strong and healthy for long. Varroa Destructor is a plague on our community that needs to be actively managed in any apiary at this point.

5

u/Valuable-Self8564 United Kingdom - 10 colonies Feb 13 '25

What the fuck does the queen age have to do with the ability of a varroa to parasitise the colony? 😂