Now that we have varoa in our neck of the woods the colonies of wild bees have destroyed.
A thought crossed my mind while reading about africanized bees / killer bees ,
Does Varroa decimate the expansion of killer bees ?
AHB swarm a lot and the hives will move to new homes a lot during the year. This is a break in the brood development and slows the mites down.
How many times do they swarm in a year ?
But would the overall build up of mites in the area weaken them eventually ?
edward ask followed by >tecumseh response:
Does Varroa decimate the expansion of killer bees ?
tecumseh> like a tick on livestock they are undoubtly a drag on the biology of bees of whatever kind they become attached.
How many times do they swarm in a year ?
tecumseh> likely impossible to get an exact number. by description an africanized hive undisturbed builds up to about 80 pounds of surplus and then swarms. this is about half the surplus level resulting in swarming for european honeybees. I have seen numbers as high as 12 although I think this is purely speculative.
But would the overall build up of mites in the area weaken them eventually ?
tecumseh>I think the idea behind the varroa advantage of ahb bees is a bit like integrated pest management (ipm) and determining the economic threshold for varroa intervention. you do no eridicate the mite but simple knock down the total population to a minimum 'non economic damage' level. without a host (ie some density of hives/ area) why would the varroa build up in an area?
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There are much researches about killer bees' mites. They are variable.
Quote from: edward on November 02, 2010, 10:37:30 PM
How many times do they swarm in a year ?
But would the overall build up of mites in the area weaken them eventually ?
In the right conditions and year round nectar flow, AHBs have been known to swarm up to 18 times per year.
Swarming (and brood breaks) provide great mite suppression.
They are also too defensive to let a mite walk around the hive.
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