beetles & mites

[beebloke]

Hi.

We did not wake up one morning to find SHB and mites in hives.They must have been around for some long time before they became a bother.

What has enabled them to make the leap from being just another critter to become a serious pest to beekeepers?

If I think about all the noxious weeds,vermin and any other pests in my country,we certainly gave them a leg up.

Thank You,
Beebloke

[Jim Fischer]

> We did not wake up one morning to find SHB and
> mites in hives.

There certainly are some who did - SHB in
Australia being a classic example of how
many beekeepers simply did not notice them
until the infested area and number of apiaries
and honey houses infested was large.

> They must have been around for some long
> time before they became a bother.

Where they were first found (the area in and
around the country of South Africa), they
really were not much of a bother to their
(Scutellata) bees, but SHB may be one reason
why scuts abscond so often. At some point,
the SHB makes a hive "beyond salvaging".

> What has enabled them to make the leap from
> being just another critter to become a serious
> pest to beekeepers?

Just like varroa, the "leap" was a leap across
oceans to a new ecosystem, different bee breeds,
and a different climate. In a different setting,
a minor pest often becomes a major one.