
How the Varroa Mite’s True Diet Was Discovered - sohkamyung
https://entomologytoday.org/2019/02/21/inside-look-how-varroa-mite-diet-discovered/
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jeffreyrogers
I'd love to see more science reporting like this. I think the authors did a
great job of explaining the process of discovery: anomalous findings made them
question what was wrong with the current theory -> initial steps to see what
could possibly replace the current theory -> verification of their proposed
replacement. Plus the picture are awesome.

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faitswulff
The imaging in this article is incredible. Worth it even just for that.

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yawz
As a beekeeper, this is my bees’ #1 enemy. Understanding Verroa mites better
means better protection for our bees.

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lostlogin
You might already be onto it, but if not, have a look for Randy Oliver and
Oxalic acid [1]. Or, more locally for me, this mega thread [2] on homemade
treatment strips. They work, they are cheap and so far there is no resistance.

[1][http://scientificbeekeeping.com](http://scientificbeekeeping.com)

[2][https://www.nzbees.net/forums/topic/10061-oxalic-and-
glyceri...](https://www.nzbees.net/forums/topic/10061-oxalic-and-
glycerine/?page=103)

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helij
If you are an amateur beekeeper and not concerned about the amount of honey
you produce there is another way to get rid of Varroa. Just let colonies swarm
naturally! Because the old queen goes with the swarm and new one doesn't lay
eggs for a few days Varroa mites don't have anywhere to breed. That way their
population crashes to manageable levels and colonies survive the winter
without dying off. And yes, I did control Varroa this way for years. Obviously
this doesn't work on a commercial scale due to colonies swarming just when
it's time for them to be productive ;)

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crdrost
Now _that_ is an interesting story that I have not seen anywhere.

So if I'm understanding you right, this danger to bees is a sort of hack where
our business-needs (namely being able to control what we pollinate and when)
cause us to tend these colonies in a way that removes a security precaution
(the honey bees "cleaning house" regularly) and these mites happen to be in a
great position to shamelessly exploit that precaution and grow beyond bound?

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jly
You are correct in that the ways we commercially keep bees (our 'business
needs') override the mechanisms honeybees evolved for defense against disease.

Swarming is just one of many natural behaviors that enhances the bees' ability
to survive. This paper from a prominent bee researcher highlights 20
significant differences between how honeybees evolved to live and how we keep
them today, all of which reduce the 'exquisite fit' with their environment:

[https://www.naturalbeekeepingtrust.org/darwinian-
beekeeping](https://www.naturalbeekeepingtrust.org/darwinian-beekeeping)

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Thermolabile
Articles like this are one of the main reasons I regret not pursuing a
profession in entomology. Excellent article, nicely detailed. I wish I had
access to the equipment and facilities used to make this amazing discovery.

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disqard
The structured approach taken by this team to answer their research question
("what does the Varroa feed on?") is exemplary, and inspiring to read about.
Thank you for sharing this article!

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trhway
the mite sticking between the bee's exoskeleton plates reminds of a dagger hit
under/between the plates of an ironclad knight.

Interesting that no self-cleaning (or mate-cleaning) behavior has emerged. May
be, given the bees vision, the attached mite isn't distinguishable from the
rest of the bee?

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lostlogin
It has and is being bred for. It’s know as hygienic behaviour. Results vary
and it’s far from perfect.

You can interrupt whatever that varroa are doing with icing sugar. You shake a
cup of bees with icing sugar in there. Anything above 2-3 varroa per cup of
bees is the standard treatment threshold. It’s horrifying to see 15 fall off a
cup of bees from a strong, healthy looking hive. Varroa are awful.

I’ve just noticed that for first pic in that article is labeled with a scale
saying ‘200mm’ presumably it’s supposed to be .2mm (I cant get Greek on my
phone).

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sohkamyung
You are right. The scale of one of the pictures appear to be mis-labeled as
200mm. I believe, based on the other pictures, it should be 200um
(micrometres).

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StavrosK
The article says "200 microns" as well.

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yesenadam
Great story, amazing and gruesome pictures! Thanks.

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foo_in_bar
That was a good read, thanks. I'm amazed by how we're constantly getting
better at discovering the real cause of many things.

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cascom
I’m always amazed at how little we actually know!

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InclinedPlane
This sort of thing is a good reminder of just how shallow our knowledge of the
world often is. There's often this perception that we know so much, but in
reality our ignorance is not just vast but also readily at hand. Bees are the
core of a multi-billion dollar industry in the developed world, and yet for
decades we knew very little about one of the most important aspects of
beekeeping (varoa mites).

Also, this is a reminder of the degree to which the modern world is utterly
dependent on science and technology and yet at the same time vastly under-
invests in critical research. Half a dozen people cracked this mystery.
Imagine how much progress we could make if we had better funding for science
and research across the board.

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Chico11Kidlet
So, I am assuming that the uptick in the volume of varroa during the August-
September time frame might be because of the transition of the summer worker
bee to the winter worker bee. The winter bee tends to have more fat, at least
that is what I have read. Therefore, there might even be a correlation between
the uptick during this time due to the bees developing more fat for the over
wintering of the hive and a larger increase of the mite? Could this contribute
to less ‘over wintering bees’ and hence the downfall of the hive due to lack
of warmth?

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lostlogin
Where in the world are you - the uptick relates to the season but I’m unsure
which season your pointing to. I’ve inderstood it to be as follows: Treatment
comes out as honey supers go on. Varroa numbers start to grow as brood area
expands and more drones are produced (which they prefer). At the end of the
season there are a lot of varroa but the brood area starts to shrink. This is
disastrous for bees as the percentage of cells with varroa in them is now very
high. Deformed wing virus et al start to become very obvious. This is probably
the peak in varroa numbers that you refer to. Late autumn or winter arrive,
bees are dying as the virus load is too high. Even treatment probably won’t
work at this stage. The brood is now longer all covered and starts to die.
Swarms happen as bees try to abscond from the dying colony.

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JackFr
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siphonaptera_(poem)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siphonaptera_\(poem\))

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jeffreyrogers
Does anyone know how the pictures are made? Are they colorized by hand or is
there some algorithm for doing it?

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pvaldes
Probably drawing a mask boundaries first and messing with the tone balance
button inside the mask until achieving the desired tone

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yotamoron
Amazing scientific work.

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mattio
Oustanding work!

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gumby
Lovely science!

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benrawk
Brilliant!

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Halluxfboy009
So, what unilaterally “bugs” the Varroa Mite?

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lostlogin
Psuedonscorpians! [http://apicultureconference2016.co.nz/wp-
content/uploads/201...](http://apicultureconference2016.co.nz/wp-
content/uploads/2016/07/Poster-P-F-vanToor-ChelifersVarroa-v2-copy.pdf)

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pvaldes
Would be a cool use for a cool animal, but the effect of pseudoscorpions was
not signifiant in this article. Groups Untreated and with Chelifers having
almost the same Varroa counts at the end. No effect in reduction of Varroa is
the first conclusion of the article.

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lostlogin
Yes - they definitely feed on varroa but getting sufficient numbers in the
hive for varroa control is the difficulty. I’m away of a trial underway in New
Zealand but that’s about the extent of my knowledge.

