Subject: Re: Mite damage

From: Steve Bambara <[email-masked]>
Date: 2 Oct 1995 12:17:39 GMT

Ted Fischer <[email-masked]> wrote:
>Yesterday, I set out to one of my yards to put in Apistan strips.  I 
>usually do this about the end of August, but this was an unusually 
>rushed year, so I didn't get around to it until now.  Four weeks ago I 
>harvested an average of 125 lbs of honey from these 15 very strong hives 
>(at that time filling three hive bodies plus up to six medium depth 
>supers).  Much to my surprise, six of the colonies had died out, leaving 
>no bees at all in the hive; seven were extremely weak and most of these 
>were queenless; only two were what I would call moderate in strength.  I 
>saw many dead and dying bees on the ground in the vicinity of the 
>beeyard, and can only surmise that the colonies were victims of the 
>varroa mite.  I had always been able to control the mite with timely 
>applications of Apistan, and so never realized the devastation possible 
>in so short a time!  I am a much sadder (and poorer) but wiser beekeeper 
>after this experience.  Has anyone else seen anything like this happen 
>so rapidly?  (Incidentally, two of the hives showed AFB as well, but I 
>wonder if this might be a stress response to varroa?)
>

	Been there.  Done it.  I usually treat about the first of August.
I don't know how AFB enters into your equation, too, but Vmites can
do it too.  Think about it.  If no brood successfully hatched out
for two months, what would be left.  Hives under severe Vmite pressure
sometimes abscond or collapse near the end.

***************************************************************
Steve Bambara  Dept. of Entomology, Box 7626, Raleigh, NC 27695
[email-masked]    (919) 515-1661    fax (919) 515-7273

---

From: "William J. Morrison" <[email-masked]>
Date: 2 Oct 1995 18:24:53 GMT

Ted,

					Two of my four colonies here in Southcentral Pennsylvania are 
showing symptoms such as you describe.  One is queenless and both have 
brood combs cleared out in the center area. Around the perimeter are 
capped, late pupae and a few larvae. The larvae are dead, collapsed, 
very milky white, and some of them are dehydrated and tan in color.  
There is no ropiness to the dead larvae and there is no smell.  There 
are a few pupae, some with purple eyes already, which have not been 
fully capped. There are perfectly circular holes in the cap's centers 
and the holes have beaded edges.  I do not understand why these cells 
were not normally capped.
					I did NOT give these colonies a spring Apistan treatment and feel 
that if I had, they would have been in better shape.  The queens in them 
were not as good as in my other two hives.  I should mention that both 
of these colonies were strong in midsummer and brought in a record crop.
					I would be very interested to learn more about  exactly what is 
going on during colony devastation due to varroa (Which I know to be 
present in my sick hives.)

Bill Morrison					[email-masked]  (In the Cumberland Valley 
																																									of Pennsylvania)

---

From: "William J. Morrison" <[email-masked]>
Date: 2 Oct 1995 18:24:03 GMT

Ted,

---

From: "William J. Morrison" <[email-masked]>
Date: 2 Oct 1995 18:28:10 GMT

Ted,

fully capped. There are perfectly circular holes in the caps' centers

---

From: "William J. Morrison" <[email-masked]>
Date: 2 Oct 1995 19:29:02 GMT

Ted,

What you describe happening to your colonies is similar to what I see in 
two out of the four that I have. They both produced record crops - over 
100 lbs. of honey each.  One of them is queenless and both have brood 
frames with large central areas cleared out.  I believe that I saw the 
white specks indicating varroa feces.  Around the perimeter of the empty 
brood areas are dead worker larvae that are soft with milky white 
contents. They are not ropy and have no odor.  I noticed a few 
purple-eyed pupae in cells with incomplete caps. These pupae look 
healthy.  The caps have smooth edged, round holes in their centers as if 
the workers did not complete the caps but just left them open.  This 
puzzles me.  I'm curious about the larval disease (which I saw just a 
touch of last September) which seems to be secondary to a varroa 
infestation.  I now have treated all of my colonies with Apistan strips,
menthol, and terramycin in grease patties.  One last comment:  I had one 
colony  headed by an alleged "Yugo" queen  that was not treated last 
fall or spring with apistan and was lousy with mites and was extremely 
strong right through winter and spring.  But it swarmed twice and I only 
caught one of the swarms.   As they always tell us, a vigorous queen 
makes a difference, but you have to practice swarm prevention.  I would 
like to hear from others about the details of what goes on during a 
devastating varroa infestation and how tracheal mites might figure into
the devastation.  I had no "crawling" bees on the ground this year but 
have diagnosed trachael mites in past years.

Bill Morrison				[email-masked]
(Located in the Cumberland Valley of Pennsylvania)

---

From: "William J. Morrison" <[email-masked]>
Date: 2 Oct 1995 19:29:46 GMT

Ted,

---

From: "William J. Morrison" <[email-masked]>
Date: 2 Oct 1995 19:30:18 GMT

Ted,

---

From: "William J. Morrison" <[email-masked]>
Date: 2 Oct 1995 19:31:29 GMT

Ted,