From: Dennis Murrell <hvgjun@juno.com>
Date: Wed, 3 Oct 2001 16:46:15 -0600
To: BiologicalBeekeeping@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: Wintering Notes

Hello Everyone,

As my bees are getting ready for winter I have several observations from
the tray beneath a screened bottom board. First the natural mite drop has
increased dramatically, from less than 25/day to about 150/day. This rate
has tapered off to less than 100/day by the end of September.

At least 1/3 of the mites have obvious bite marks! I know the Europeans
have selected bees based on this characteristic. I have looked in the
past but never found any definite damage and didn't notice any damage
earlier this year. More mites could be missing legs, etc. but with 10x
lens the gash in the mites are obvious.

About 1/2 the fallen mites are immatures and males. Before September the
natural mite fall was primarily mature adult females with the occasional
immature and no males.

Another very anecdotal observation. On my bees on 5.4 foundation, I very
seldom noticed a mite on a bee except on the ventral side of the abdomen
between the tergites. With my small foundation bees, almost all the mites
are located externally, usually on the dorsal side of abdomen on the
corner of second tergite beneath the wing. Secondly the mites are noticed
externally on the sternum and rarely on top of the thorax. I really
didn't think that the small difference in cell size would make this kind
of difference. Any observations?

Best Wishes
Dennis Murrell