Varroa mites are one of the single most detrimental stressors to honey bees. Living off the blood of young bees and replicating alongside the capped, young honey bee larvae, they also rapidly spread viruses to the colony. If the bite from the mites don't cause the bees' death, the viruses usually do.
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| Varroa mite on a bee. Photo by Alex Wild www.AlexanderWild.com |
But, if you are a living organism that is constantly killing your host, how do you survive?
Researchers in Italy may have answer to this question. The results of their study are published in the Journal of Experimental Biology. It suggests that varroa mites will stay within a hive with low levels of mite infestation. There, they ride on the backs of the nurse bees which rarely venture far from the hive. They can distinguish them from older foraging bees by the difference in their 'smell' - presumably by the chemical make-up contained in the wax coating in their backs. However, as the mite level increases, the odor differences become less and less distinguishable. This allows the mites to attach to foragers where they can leave the hive on a regular basis. Once outside the hive, these hitch hikers have a better chance of ending up in a neighboring hive as bees naturally drift between colonies.
So, now that we know the chemical odor that attracts varroa mites, my question is: Could we make a trap for them baited with this odor? Or, would it befoul the delicate balance of natural volatilized chemical compounds found within the hive?
Read more:
http://jeb.biologists.org/content/217/17/2998.abstract
http://entomologytoday.org/2014/08/29/how-do-varroa-mites-know-when-to-leave-honey-bee-hives-its-all-in-the-bees-wax/
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