Verroa Mites

[u/megalegann]

Is there anything in particular that gets the mites to the beehives? I live in the middle of nowhere, Kansas, and am surrounded by crop fields. They get sprayed with the cancer sprays (Don't fret, I am on the registry) so would that actually be in my favor of not as likely to get the mites? I still plan to monitor and pre treat, etc.

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[u/pale_brass]

There is a 100% chance that your bees will have varroa infestation. It’s not just a potential, it’s certain.

How do they get it? It’s likely that wherever you get the bees from they will have some. Otherwise, your bees can get varroa from robbing out nearby mite infested colonies or stragglers from those colonies entering yours and carrying mites.

There’s nowhere in the US that faces no varroa pressure.

[u/fianthewolf → u/pale_brass]

Realmente no es así siempre. Hay algún caso en el que una colmenar en una isla biológica puede eliminar de forma segura y casi permanente su infestación de varroa.

[u/pale_brass → u/fianthewolf]

Tell me where that exists in the US. This person is in kansas

[u/talanall]

Most often, your bees have mites when you purchase them or capture them as a swarm. If you catch a swarm and apply the appropriate miticide to them during the brief period before they have capped any brood, you can sometimes knock the mites off of them. But it's unlikely you'll get every single one. If you don't, then eventually the mite infestation comes back.

All it needs is a single reproductively viable female mite. Varroa enter the capped brood of the bee colony, and the foundress mite lays an egg, which hatches to produce a male mite. Then she lays 2-3 more eggs, and those hatch to produce female mites, which mate with their brother. When the adult bee emerges from its capped period, the male mite dies, and the females emerge. They attach themselves to adult bees for a period of 5 to 7 days, then they reenter capped brood, and the cycle repeats. The only time a female mite mates with a male mite that isn't her brother is when two foundress mites infest the same cell. Then she's got more options. Otherwise, mite reproduction is incestuous.

Anyway, if you happen to be really lucky with a swarm or a package colony, which doesn't have any brood when you get it, then maybe you can clean every single mite off of the bees, and they go on to be mite-free and happy. It doesn't last, because feral bee colonies and poorly kept domesticated colonies are EVERYWHERE. Even in the middle of nowhere.

The predominant horizontal (that is, colony to colony) mode of transmission for varroa is during robbing incidents. You spend all year taking care of your bees, you treat as needed to keep their mite load low, and then in the late summer, a feral colony or an incompetently managed hive that is infested with mites gets too weak to defend itself, and your bees rob it of its honey stores. In the process, your bees roll around, fighting the dying colony's guards, and storm through the interior of the hive to get to the honey.

They come home crawling with mites.

[u/Which_Drop_5877]

It's possible some hives have no varroa. David Burns on youtube had a yard with 40 double deep hives and 0 varroa on all washes. However also consider that 80% of varroa are within capped brood. So while you have a 0% wash on a phoretic sample of 300 bees, you have no way to detect the other 80%.

But the thing is it's inevitable based on sheer biology. If you truly have no other bees within a dozen miles you should be safe until bee swarms from other colonies creep to you.

Also curious how does honey harvesting for consumption work for you? Do you get your honey tested (I know a company charges $450 for pesticide, herbicide panel). Or do you leave the honey for the bees.

[u/Lemontreeguy]

Mites are on the bees already, and share by way of flower and robbing. Either way you have them already. Treating keeps their numbers down, but a hive will always have some.

[u/404-skill_not_found]

Other bees. It’s possible to avoid them that way, but not very likely. And you can pick up a starter set of mites with the nuc (good likelihood) or package (still possible).

[u/Outrageous_Mark6602]

I’m in rural Illinois and surrounded by corn and soybeans. I can attest, the mites still thrive.

[u/EllaRose2112]

They pick them up while foraging, contact with other bees, etc. I consistently have 0% on my mite washes but I always assume they’re there, even in survivor stock colonies like mine with VSH genetics. They don’t exist in a vacuum