Mites jump!

[kensfarm]

Not sure if many have seen this..

I was helping a commercial beek do splits & queen replacements.. lot's of bur comb w/ drone cells. He had used CheckMite strips.. the drone brood in the area of the strips was clear of mites.. but checking the drone brood on the bottom of the frames.. multiple mites.

As I was looking at an open drone brood w/ 4 or more mites in it.. a worker hovered close to the open brood.. the mite jumped as quick as a flea onto the flying worker.. I didn't know they could move like that.. no wonder they can spread from apairy to apairy so well.

[George Fergusson]

How far did it jump? I've heard they can jump 5/8" without any trouble suggesting that to be effective, unless you're using sticky stuff, screened bottom boards should have a 3/4" gap between the bottom and the screen.

[danameric]

I have my sbb's sitting about 2 inches above a big board that the hive rests on. I plan on adding an old cookie sheet and dumping it weekly. Is that good enough? Should I put oil in the sheet and then seal it away from the bees? http://s176.photobucket.com/albums/w173/danameric/

[kensfarm]

It probably was about an inch to 3/4.. I wonder if there is any research on it. It just caught me by surprise.. there were at least 3 red mites.. and maybe 5 or 6 white mites in the drone cell.

A sticky board w/ veggie spray should keep the mites from jumping back up.. I check & clean mine once a week.. especially if I've done a powder sugar treatement.

[HarryVanderpool]

Sorry to my fellow and respected beekeepers in this post but I'm calling B.S.
I recieved a USDA Grant for Varroa reasearch in 2002 and spent the following 3 years immearsed in mites.
3 years of measuring (size) mites, counting mites, etc...
In that same time period, I read right here of accounts of mites running up the side of a hive to the lid, and of mites jumping through the air to make a perfect landing on a bee.
I didn't see any of that.
Please be sceptical of the things that you read on the internet.
But more important, please be careful about WHAT YOU POST on the internet.

[George Fergusson]

Please be sceptical of the things that you read on the internet.
But more important, please be careful about WHAT YOU POST on the internet.

Now wait a second. Discount my statement as hearsay if you wish, but Kensfarm said he SAW a mite jump onto a bee. Are you saying he was mistaken? Imagining things? Or lying?

[Jeffzhear]

LOL, I think I detect a difference of opinion here! George, While no one in particular was named, I think the inference is clear! lol

[George Fergusson]

LOL, I think I detect a difference of opinion here!

Yah think? :)

FWIW, I didn't read about mites jumping on the internet, it was told to me by a beekeeper with a thousand hives or so and many years of experience. So this issue isn't about reading some bunk on the internet and taking it as gospel.

Harry is clearly of the opinion that mites don't/can't jump and I'm inclined to think they can and do jump. I don't think that Harry's experience with mites necessarily precludes the possibility of jumping mites. So from what I can see so far it's 2 people, one of whom is an eye-witness, suggesting mites can jump and one person stating they can't jump because he's never seen one jumping.

In the overall scheme of things I suppose it doesn't matter but it is a point of interest.

[Maine_Beekeeper]

Last summer I was looking at mites on the solid bottom of my observation hive. (very frustrating to be watching them an no way to get at them without totally disrupting the hive - I'll modify that when I repopulate the hive - they're now out in a real hive.)

I watched an alive adult (red/brown) mite jump on the bottom board. It did not jump onto the frame above or onto a bee. Just jumped from one spot on the bottom board to another. I'd say about 3/4".

Our state inspector says mites can't jump more than 1".

I've got no research or anything scientific, just what I observed. It definitely jumped (pretty far considering the size of a mite). It surprised me when I saw it happen.

[George Fergusson]

Our state inspector says mites can't jump more than 1".

Oh yeah baby, that's what I'm talking about! If Tony says they jump, I'm inclined to believe him :)

I've never seen them jump, but I've found mites crawling on the screen of my hive inserts and always wondered if they chanced to grab the screen on the way by, or jumped there.

[Michael Bush]

In the observation hive, I've seen a bee doing a "get it off me" dance many times when the mite jumps to the one trying to get it off. Once you recognize the "get it off me dance", it's easy to observe them jump from one bee to the next as they do it quite often. The distance I observed wasn't far as they bees are in contact at the time, but they definitely jump. They also run quite fast if the other bee is trying to catch it or if you try to touch the mite with anything they are not feeding at the time.

[kensfarm]

Thanks for the support guys.. if I didn't see it jump.. I wouldn't have said so.

And we wonder how the mites spread so fast from apairy to apairy.. it's not just visiting drones or workers from an infected hive.

[Dave W]

I have never seen a mite jump. Some say they can, other say no :)

>mites spread so fast from apairy to apairy . . .

BUT, I must say (just for the record) I DO NOT BELIEVE mites jump from one apairy to the other :)

[simplyhoney]

Whattya mean mites don't jump!!! Haven't you ever heard the story called "The Jumping Mite of Hanaberra County".................you know the one where the other guy puts lead shot in the mites belly so it can't jump so far to win a bet.....by that Twain fella... Or did I dream it..........:)