Trachael Mite - Colony Collapse

[Mike Gillmore]

I wonder if someone would describe what a dead out would look like due to collapse from Tracheal Mite infestation. Excluding k-wing and bees crawling in the grass, what might you discover "in the hive" of a colony that succumbed to T-mites. Thanks.

[Mike Gillmore]

Wow, no responses. I guess everyone is out taking care of their bees. :)

Patience, patience... right?

[Joseph Clemens]

Okay, I'll give it a try:

In my 40 years of keeping bees, I've never lost a colony that I didn't intentionally give away or sell. And I've only sold a few colonies this year, my first time, selling. For me it is a practical impossibility to answer the question, "What does a "dead-out" look like from, ___________(fill in the blank)?" I have never had a hive succumb to anything fatal. Since I micro-manage, whenever a colony needs something, I borrow it from a neighboring colony and give it to the needy colony. If a colony goes queenless at a bad time to let them requeen themselves, I might combine them with another queenright colony, but I do not then consider them a lost colony -- certainly not a "dead-out". I might add that I've never used any chemicals or other medicines.




-

[Mike Gillmore]

Joseph,
That is a track record you should be very proud of. You are either living in a bubble or you are an exceptional beekeeper. I'm sure it's the latter. :)

[dickm]

With tracheal mites the bees can't breathe. They may collect in small clusters in several sites in the hive, rather than one cluster. One sign is when you see a small cluster outside "sunning themselves." This happens in the winter too. A grease patty is cheap insurance.

dickm

[Michael Palmer]

First, the bees fly out of the hive in the winter, and die on the snow...in an arc in front of the hive. This when the other colonies in the yard are quiet. This becomes a sizable pile of dead bees by snow melt.

There is usually heavy dysentery...black tar poop around the entrance. Very poopy inside hive.

Usually there is a small patch of brood, which the bees weren't...if they're dead...or aren't...if they're still alive...able to take care of. Sometimes a small dead cluster, moved off the brood in a last attempt to survive. In this way, the symptoms may be similar to Varroa. With Varroa, you examing the bees that died as they hatched, with their tongues out, and some will have DWV. Often the dead adult bees will have tiny, shrunken abdomens in Varroa death.

[Michael Bush]

I've never lost one to tracheal mites that I can tell and I've never treated for them except for using a grease patty once when I hadn't pinpointed Varroa as the culprit. Until Varroa, I never lost a hive either. But then I always combined the weak and only overwintered strong hives back then, and they were Buckfasts.

[kingofbees]

I have beehives with HSC; is it necessary to treatment them against the tracheal mite?

[clintonbemrose]

I have lost hives to Tmites. In the hives there were 200 to 300 dead bees with none with their heads inside the comb. I sent the dead bees to the lab in Beltsville and they said the bees were infested with Tracheal mites enough to kill the bees in the hive. This was in the late 1960's or early 1970's. A time when many beekeepers were losing hives.
Clint

[Michael Palmer]

>>I sent the dead bees to the lab in Beltsville and they said the bees were infested with Tracheal mites enough to kill the bees in the hive. This was in the late 1960's or early 1970's. A time when many beekeepers were losing hives.

Do you have your dates right? Tracheal mites didn't arrive in the US until the 80's.

[Michael Bush]

>I have beehives with HSC; is it necessary to treatment them against the tracheal mite?

If you have tracheal mite resitant bees then no. Dee Lusby believes that small cell will prevent tracheal mites. I have not had problems with tracheal mites, so I have no experience to draw on as to it helping or not. If everyone would stop treating we'd have resistant bees. :)

[Joel]

I'm pretty much sold on the small cell reducing varroa although I think it has as much to do with the specific management and clean comb as cell size. What's Dees theory on how small cell reduces trachaels? Since Trachaels hone in on the carbon from respiration there would have to be some factor that either prohibits or confuses detection??

I should probably wander over to L, I assume she must have somthing posted on it there?

[FordGuy]

>I have beehives with HSC; is it necessary to treatment them against the tracheal mite?

If you have tracheal mite resitant bees then no. Dee Lusby believes that small cell will prevent tracheal mites. I have not had problems with tracheal mites, so I have no experience to draw on as to it helping or not. If everyone would stop treating we'd have resistant bees. :)

wow, that's really interesting...I have decided to transition over to small cell, as I can afford it...probably going to use HSC.

[Michael Bush]

>What's Dees theory on how small cell reduces trachaels? Since Trachaels hone in on the carbon from respiration there would have to be some factor that either prohibits or confuses detection??

Dee originally went to small cell to resolve Tracheal mite problems back in 1983. They went away. She speculates that the spiracles were smaller and that keeps the tracheal mites as external parasites rather than internal. I'm just saying another possible reason is that she bred resistance by refusing to treat them anymore. Whatever the actual cause, going to small cell and not treating was what she did and the problem went away.

There could be other mechanisms at work also.

[Ian]

Whats the chances shes running Africanized Bees?

[Aspera]

That question is always the proverbial "elephant in the room" when talking about small cell.

[Michael Bush]

>That question is always the proverbial "elephant in the room" when talking about small cell.

Back in 1983 when she quit treating for Tracheal mites and regressed down to 5.0mm it wasn't.