Bee Wellness Workshop
Sponsored by
Empire State Honey Producers Association (ESHPA.org)
And
USDA NIFA Beginning Farmers and Ranchers Development
Program, Grant # 2011-494400-30631
Honey Bee Parasites
Varroa mite (Varroa destructor)
Varroa mites are a serious malady of honey bees. Found nearly
everywhere there are honey bees, beekeepers should assume their
bees have a varroa mite infestation. These external parasites feed on
the hemolymph (blood) of adult bees and capped brood, and create
open wounds which increase susceptibility to viruses.
Mite on a larva, and mite on a bee
with deformed wing virus, DWV.
Life history
• Adult female varroa mite
Only mature female mites survive on adult honey bees and can be found on both
workers and drones, rarely on queens.
Varroa mites are reddish brown, the size of a pin head, and can be seen with the naked
eye.
Their flat shape allows them to squeeze between overlapping segments of a bee’s
abdomen to feed and escape removal by grooming bees and also permits them to move
easily in the cells of developing bee brood. Male mites are smaller and light tan in color.
Adult males do not feed and are not found outside of brood cells.
• Varroa mite life cycle
Mature female mites move into brood cells just before the cells are capped. After the
cells are capped the mites start feeding on the brood. The foundress mites begin laying
eggs approximately three days after the cell has been capped. A fertilized female mite lays
one unfertilized(male) egg and four to six fertilized (female) eggs. The adult female and its
immature offspring feed at a hole pierced in the developing pupae by the foundress mite.
Only mature female mites will survive, attached when their host bee emerges as an adult.
• Varroa mite
Without bees and brood, the mites can only survive a few days.
With bees and brood a female can live months.
On average a mite in a worker cell will have 1.2 offspring. In a
drone cell, she will have on average 2.2 offspring due to the
longer incubation period. More mites per cell are produced in
drone brood, and mites select drone brood.
New bees and young nurse bees transport the mites as they crawl
on the brood comb.
Left untreated, varroa mite infestation
will severely compromise the health of
the hive.
Monitoring Varroa Mite Infestation
1- Examining Drone Brood
Quickly assess the presence of varroa mites by examining drone brood
—uncap cells, remove and examine white pupae.
Individual pupae can be removed using forceps, or many drone pupae can be
removed at once using an uncapping fork.
Drone brood is often housed between boxes and is broken open when boxes are
separated during routine inspections. Always examine exposed brood for mites.
2- Check a known quantity of Nurse Bees
Because nurse bees are those most likely to transport mites to brood cells, collecting
½ cup of nurse bees (320 bees) (being careful to exclude the queen!) and counting
the mites present gives a good approximation of the level of infestation.
use --- sugar shake – or -- ether roll-3- Sticky Board
Simple, non-invasive and reliable, but requires a second
trip to the apiary.
What the numbers mean:
Alcohol wash, Ether roll, powdered sugar shake:
Take the number of mites collected, divide by 3,
mutiply by 2 = % of mites
# mites/3 X 2= % mite infestation
<10% = no treatment, 10-12% = watch, 12% or greater = treat
Brood examination (Drone):
Uncap ~100 cells in purple eye stage
assess general mite load
Sticky Boards for 3 days:
Divide by 3 for 1 day average
Treatment threshold:
12 mites in Spring = treat
23 mites in Fall
The following pesticide treatment information came from:
www.masterbeekeeper.org/mgmt/pesticides.htm
Apistan® (tau-fluvalinate)
Dosage: Use one strip for each 5
combs of bees or less in each brood
chamber (Langstroth deep frames or
equivalent in other sizes).
READ LABEL for most complete and current directions.
Wear latex gloves when handling strips.
Hang strips within two combs of the edge of the bee cluster.
If two deep supers are used for the brood nest, hang APISTAN strips in
alternate corners of the cluster, in the top and bottom super.
For best chemical distribution, use APISTAN when daytime high
temperatures are at least 50 ºF.
Treat 1-2 times per year.
Do not apply when honey supers are on the hive.
Treatment dates: in the early spring starting 42-56 days before adding honey
supers; and again, right after removing the fall crop
Treatment period: 42-56 days
Withholding period: none
CheckMite+® (coumaphos)
Dosage: Use one strip for each 5 combs of bees in each brood chamber
(Langstroth deep frames or equivalent in other sizes).
.
READ LABEL for most complete and current directions.
Chemical resistant gloves must be worn when handling strips (nitrile rubber
only, NO latex).
Remove honey supers before treating. Supers may be replaced 14 days
after completing the treatment and removing strips.
Hang strips in separate spaces between the combs as near the center of the
bee/brood cluster as possible.
If two deep brood chambers are used for the brood nest, hang the
CheckMite+ strips in both the top and bottom brood chambers.
Treat all infested colonies in the apiary.
Treat 1-2 times per year.
Treatment dates: in the early spring starting 56-59 days before adding honey
supers; and again, right after removing the fall crop.
Treatment period: 42-45 days
Withholding period: 14 days
Sucrocide®
Dosage: Mix three tablespoons (TBS) concentrate with
two gallons of water in a dedicated pump-action hand
sprayer. Spray both sides of each comb at a rate of
1.5 oz per comb. Two gallons of prepared mixture
should treat about 85 combs. Make a total of three
applications at 7-10 day intervals.
READ LABEL for most complete and current directions.
Chemical resistant gloves must be worn when handling strips (nitrile rubber
only, NO latex).
Do not apply to winter cluster or when temperature is < 55 °F.
Treatment dates: Whenever mites are observed.
Treatment period: Make a total of three applications at 7-10 day intervals.
Withholding period: None
Api-Life VAR®
Dosage: Each treatment consists of the application of
3 tablets, with one tablet being applied every 7-10 days.
Leave last tablet in place for 12 days, and then remove
all residual material. Break each tablet into four equal
pieces and place on top bars towards outside corners
of hive. This will treat a colony with 8-20 Langstroth
frames or equivalent
READ LABEL for most complete and current directions.
Special personal protection equipment is required. See label before using.
Apply when colony is reduced to one or two brood chambers.
Place tablets in screen containers to prevent bees from removing material.
Do not use during honey flows.
Do not harvest honey from brood chambers of colony feed supers.
Use when average daily temperature are between 59 °F and 69 °F.
DO NOT use when temperature is above 90 °F.
DO NOT apply during honey flow or when honey supers are on the hive.
Treatment dates: Two treatments per year. Typically in the spring and fall.
Treatment period: Total of 26-32 days
Withholding period: 1 month
Mite-Away Quick StripsTM
Dosage: One pad for a single or double brood
chamber with 6 - 20 combs of bees.
READ LABEL for most complete and current directions.
Special personal protection equipment is required. See label before
using.Special requirements apply regarding re-entry after treatment.
Requires signage with date and time of treatment.
Treatment dates: Early spring and/or early fall or whenever needed and when
other required conditions can be met.
Treatment period: 7 days
Withholding period: none
Cultural practices
for mite control
Breaks in brood cycle of bees means a break in the brood cycle for the mites.
make splits and/or cage the queen
Drone comb removal (Must be on time!)
Ventilated bottom boards
Mite resistant bees:
VSH, Minnesota Hygienic, Russian
Local bees which have survived without treatment for several years
Field symptoms of a critical infestation
• Deformed wings
Varroa mites can transmit and/or activate some beeviruses. Few
of these viruses produce visible symptoms.
An exception is deformed wing virus (DWV),which when
present in high levels causes developing bees to have malformed
wings. When large numbers of bees in a colony have DWV, the colony
likely has high varroa populations and immediate intervention to
control the varroa population is required
• Parasitic mite syndrome
Parasitic mite syndrome (PMS) is a condition associated
with high varroa infestation. It may be caused by a virus.
PMS is characterized by a spotty brood pattern
and dead brood found in cells that are discolored,
turning a yellow brown to dark brown color.
Signs can resemble American foulbrood, but dead larvae do
not string out, as with American foulbrood, when the ropiness
test is preformed. Dead larvae can also resemble European
foulbrood and/or sacbrood infections. Both capped and
uncapped brood are affected.
Other names associated with this condition include
snotty brood and cruddy brood.
• Crawling bees abandoning the hive
Another common symptom of a heavy mite infestation
is large numbers of bees that are often hairless,
greasy looking with extended abdomens, and unable
to fly and are thus crawling out of infested hives.
These crawling bees may or may not show signs of
viral infection, such as deformed wings.
• Spotty or irregular brood pattern
Brood combs in an infested colony have a scattered or
irregular pattern of capped and uncapped cells. This
may be especially evident in highly hygienic colonies.
• Sudden summer/fall collapse
The collapse of colonies, particularly strong colonies,
in the late summer and early fall is a possible symptom
of a significant infestation of varroa mites and the
diseases associated with these mites.
Bee Wellness Classes
• Hands on training at Paul Busch’s apiary
• groups limited to 10 people
• Saturday July 14th 10-11 am
• Wednesday July 18th 10-11
• Monday July 23rd 6-7 pm
• Advance registration
• Bring CLEAN bee suit & veil
• Attendees will receive a copy of the Penn State field
guide to bee diseases
• Sampling using sugar shake or ether roll
The sugar roll technique is a quick, relatively easy sampling method
to check for the presence and number of mites on the worker adults of a
colony.
• Sampling a known quantity of bees
To collect an accurate sample (number of bees):
1. Remove a frame covered with bees from the brood nest, taking care
not to include the queen.
2. Shake the bees into a plastic tub or cardboard box.
3. Shake the tub to consolidate the bees into the corner.
4. Scoop a half cup of bees using a half-cup measuring cup (a full half-cup
measuring cup contains approximately 320 bees).
5. Place the bees into a wide-mouth quart mason jar modified with a mesh
hardware cloth top.
Rapping a frame in a plastic wash-dish container, then using a cup that
holds 0.42 cups to measure 300 adult bees.
Using a rectangular cup,
marked inside at 0.42 cups,
to measure 300 adult bees.
Gently run the cup down the
backs of the bees, causing
them to tumble in.
• Counting the mites in a sample- Sugar Shake
Add two to three tablespoons of powdered (confectioners)
sugar to the bees in the jar.
Vigorously shake the jar for about 30 seconds to distribute
the sugar over the bees.
Allow the jar to sit for approximately one minute.
Then shake the loose sugar with dislodged mites out of the
mason jar through the modified mesh cover onto a flat
surface such as a cookie sheet, pie plate, or hive lid.
Add more powdered sugar and reshake until no additional
mites appear after shaking.
Count the number of mites. Spray mites with water to rinse
off white sugar and make it
easier to count.
Let bees crawl back into hive.
Treatment is indicated if
>7 mites per sample in May or
>10 in August.
• Counting the mites in a sample- Ether Roll
This will kill the bees. Work in a well ventilated area.
Spray the bees in the jar with 3-4 squirts of ether (engine starting
fluid).
Cover with the solid lid and shake for 1 minute.
Roll the jar slowly. Mark a starting point and rotate the jar,
counting the number of bees stuck to the side, top and bottom
of the jar.
• Counting the mites in a sample- Alcohol (washer fluid) wash
This will kill the bees. Place ½ cup of bees into a jar with ½ cup washer fluid.
Cover with the solid lid and shake vigorously.
Pour the bees onto a screen over a white tub and vigorously rinse the mites from the bees
into the tub. Count the mites.
For both methods, treatment is indicated if > 4-7 mites per sample in May, or
> 9-12 in August.
Threshold recommendations vary, and are meant as a guide. Use your judgment.
If you see greatly increased numbers from a previous check, it is probably wise to treat.
• Sampling using sticky boards
A reliable way of quantifying mite levels is by
using a sticky board placed at the bottom of the
hive.
Sticky boards can be placed beneath screen
bottom boards modified for this purpose.
Sticky boards can be made using stiff, white
poster board and spray cooking oil as the sticky
material. The sticky material must be separated
from the bees with wire mesh screen elevated
about a quarter inch off the sticky surface. If
sticky boards are to be placed on solid bottom
boards, the bottom board must be cleaned to
allow board insertion.
Place boards in colonies for a minimum of three
days to accurately calculate daily mite drop
numbers. Treatment is indicated if
>9 mites per day in May or >12 in August.
Treatments:
Drone Brood Removal for the Management of
Varroa Mites
An integrated pest management (IPM) approach, drone brood
removal uses drone comb to ‘trap’ mites.
Varroa prefer drone cells rather than worker cells and become
confined in capped drone brood. Thus, if the comb is removed
before the drones hatch, many mites are removed as well.
1. Insert the drone brood frame in position 2 or 3 of brood nest.
2. Wait 24 days (eggs laid, drone brood capped, not hatched.)
3. Remove drone brood:
- either scrape or cut brood off of frame and discard where bees cannot
rob, thus getting the mites on themselves, and return frame to hive for
bees to build new
- or freeze the frame of drone brood to kill mites and drones, and return to
the hive on the next rotation 24 days later, for bees to clean out the cells
and re-use.
4. Repeat, until late August, when the drone comb can be placed to the
side of the hive for food storage.
Honey Bee Parasites
Honey bee tracheal mite
(Acarapis woodi)
Another mite that can negatively affect honey bees is the honey bee
tracheal mite. This internal parasitic mite lives within the tracheae, or
breathing tubes, of adult honey bees. The mites pierce the breathing
tube walls with their mouthparts and feed on the hemolymph (blood)
of the bees. In recent years, it appears that U.S. honey bees have
developed resistance to these mites.
Life history
• Tracheal mite life cycle
The honey bee tracheal mite is no bigger than a dust speck. The entire life
cycle of this mite is spent within the respiratory (tracheal) system of the
honey bee, except for brief migratory periods.
Female tracheal mites migrate to young adult bees (less than 4 days old).
Once in the bees’ tracheae, the mites feed and reproduce. Each female
mite lays 5 to 7 eggs, which require three to four days to hatch.
Male and female mites develop from egg to adult in 11 to 15. Eggs hatch
into six-legged larvae, then molt to a nonfeeding or pharate nymph stage,
and finally molt to the adult stage.
• Mass of bees exiting hive
When a colony is near death, large numbers of bees can
be seen crawling out of the hive, unable to fly. These bees
may display abnormally positioned wings that look disjointed
(“K” wings) and may be trembling, symptoms that can result
from diseases associated with the tracheal mites.
Field diagnosis
• Infested tracheae
A severe infestation can be identified in the field by detaching
the head from the thorax to expose the large tracheal trunks in
the thorax.
This is most easily done with drone bees.
Normally, these tracheal tubes are opaque. When infested with a
high level of mites, the tubes will be blotchy with patches of
brown or black. When infestation is particularly severe, the
tubes can be solid black.
A light infestation is difficult
to detect and can be identified only with the aid of a
microscope.
• Healthy and infested tracheae
(under microscope)
Positive identification of tracheal mites is best done
by dissection and microscopic examination of worker
bee thoracic tracheae. The tracheae of uninfested
bees are clear and colorless or pale amber in color
(healthy).
Feeding by the mites damages the walls of the tracheae. Flight
muscles in the bee’s thorax also may become atrophied as a
result of a severe infestation.
Honey Bee Diseases:
Brood Diseases
American foulbrood
American foulbrood (AFB) is an infectious brood disease caused by the
spore-forming bacterium Paenibacillus larvae. It is the most widespread
and destructive of the brood diseases. Adult bees, while not affected by
AFB, do carry the disease. American foulbrood spores are highly resistant
to desiccation, heat, and chemical disinfectants. These spores can remain
viable for more than seventy years in combs and honey.
Life history
• Punctured, sunken cappings
Paenibacillus larvae occur in two forms: vegetative (rodshaped bacterial cells) and
spores. Only the spore stage is infectious to honey bees.
Larvae less than 2.5 days old become infected by swallowing spores present in
their food. Older larvae are not susceptible.
The spores germinate into the vegetative stage soon after they enter the larval gut
and continue to multiply until larval death. Death typically occurs after the cell
has been capped, during the last two days of the larval stage or the first two days of
the pupal stage. New spores form after the larva or pupa dies. Symptoms of
Field symptoms
• Dead, melted larvae
Dead larvae change gradually from a healthy pearly white to a
light brown and then to a darker brown. This color change is
uniform over the entire body. The infected larvae look melted and
lie flat on the bottomside of the cell. The disease has a distinctive
odor, but the odor alone is not a reliable symptom foridentification
and so should be backed up with lab
confirmation.
Treatments:
.