

Time-Lapse Video Captures the Development of Baby Honeybees - timr
http://www.featureshoot.com/2015/05/astonishing-time-lapse-captures-the-development-of-baby-honeybees/

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dopeboy
Anyone notice the small bugs from 0:25 to 0:32? I wonder if those were
predators or some type of helpers - comb cleaning if you will.

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beardicus
Alas, those are Varroa mites. Not helpers, but blood-sucking (or the bee
equivalent to blood: hemolymph) aliens that are causing quite a problem for
beekeepers.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varroa_destructor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varroa_destructor)

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toomuchtodo
Is there any defense against them?

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beardicus
There are some efforts to breed better hygienic behavior into bees, so they
clean out parasitized brood or clean themselves of the mites. There are a few
chemical treatments, including formic acid. And there are a few management
techniques you can employ to disrupt their life cycle. So, it is manageable,
though even with close attention and management they are clearly weakening
hives and contributing to the mess of problems beekeepers are having.

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shkkmo
That was really cool.

I wish there had been a single continuos shot that showed the whole
development process, with and indication of how fast time is progressing.

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pcunite
So amazing ...

