The health of honey bees has had quite a bit of media attention recently and this little fellow in the photo whom I found in my hive today is probably the main reason for such concern:
"VARROA DESTRUCTOR"
The name may sound like a massive exaggeration for such a tiny mite but the damage they cause does justify it.The varroa {pronounced "va-ro-wa"} mite's entire life cycle takes place inside the hive. The adult varroa, like this one, lays its eggs on the developing bee larva before it is sealed inside the cell. They lie hidden here alongside the growing larva until the cell is sealed by the house bees. At this point the juvenile mites hatch out and attach themselves to the developing bee larva. By the time the adult bee hatches about a fortnight later (often poorly grown and sometimes with deformities because of the parasitic feeding) several adult varroa mites emerge with it. These mites attach themselves to adult bees, feeding off their bodies and further weakening them, making the whole colony extremely vulnerable to all the regular pests and diseases which they can normally cope with.The cycle continues like this and the mite population can grow massively faster than the bee population because several mites hatch out with each bee.
Unfortunately varroa mites have recently become completely endemic in this country, meaning there is not a single colony in Britain which does not have some level of infestation. The same is true of Europe, the USA, Asia and practically every other part of the planet so I'm not the least bit surprised to discover one mite in my colony.
I found this one because I have a 'varroa floor' installed on my hive. It is basically a false floor, made of wire mesh instead of solid wood. The holes in the mesh are too small for bees to pass through but if I place a tray smeared with vaseline under it I can monitor everything which falls off the bees inside the hive.
Usually it's just lumps of pollen which get dropped (that's what these dark lumps are in the photo) and flakes of wax (the orange dust visible) but its main purpose is so that any varroa mite which gets brushed off cannot climb back up to attach itself to another bee.It is estimated that 10-20% of the varroa mites can be removed just by using this method throughout the year. That's not nearly enough to actually reduce the number of mites in the hive (they reproduce much faster than a rate of 110-120%!) so it isn't a solution to the infestation but it does help and also means that I can accurately monitor just how bad the infestation is. There are methods for treating the colony to actively reduce the number of varroa mites but doing that right now would actually inconvenience the bees more than a mild infestation of varroa would. All I plan to do now is to keep monitoring the level and plan for treatment later in the year.
