[The Sanctuary] Bee A Pest

by **Kavala** on June 1st, 2013, 7:59 am

Timestamp: Early Summer, 513 AV
Continued From: Bee Diseased

When Kavala was done with her notes on what Collin had said about hive diseases, she set her book aside and watched him walk around his office. He had a glass shelved wooden cabinet that was filled with Petri dishes and glassware of all sorts, most of which had small jars that contained any number of things. While the small konti enjoyed sitting in Collin’s chair at his desk, the Beekeeper started fetching glass containers from the cabinet.

“There will be a test on this later.” Collin joked as he placed a petri dish complete with a lid in front of her. But rather than having a gel medium in it or some sort of growth, it had a felt pad covering what looked like a sponge and several pale moths pinned to it. They didn’t look like the same species, but were very similar in likeness. “You’ll want to start your own collection like this Kavala. It will help you keep track of what sort of pests you have in your apiary and what drew them into the apiary in the first place.” Collin said.

Kavala reached forward and picked up the dish, turning it this way and that way in the light. Preserved next to the pinned moth was a jar of alcohol that had a bunch of larva floating in it that were labeled the same as the moth was. She picked up the jar as well, holding one in each hand, she compared the two. Within the jar, some of the larva were larger and some smaller than the others. Again, it looked like two different species to the Konti Healer.

“Are these pinned moths two different kinds? They look distinctly different.” Kavala asked, curious, as she turned and tilted them towards the light coming through Collin’s office window.

He nodded, a grin lighting up his face. “Very good. That’s a Wax Moth. Both greater and lesser moths. The larger of course is the greater while the smaller is the lesser. They are incredibly prominent enemies of bees. But in the wild they render a great necessity to the bees when a colony is utterly destroyed by foulbrood. They lay eggs in combs that have been removed from the bees or in crevices about the hive. The larvae that hatch from these eggs feed on the combs themselves, preferring those in which pollen has been stored or which brood has been reared. There really is no difference in the two moths except size in the moth and larvae stages.” Kavala nodded, listening. This time she took notes, setting down the Petri and jars as she did so.

“Do they live in active colonies?” She asked, not sure if they were just predators on dead colonies like some creatures were.

“Sure.” Collin responded. “They tunnel beneath the surface of the comb to keep out of the reach of the beees and when the bees get busy during heavy nectar flows, they let the wax worms run rampant. When the flows die down, the bees will dig into the wax to retrieve the worms and evict them from the hive. When the larvae mature, they spin a cocoon from which they emerge as adult moths. The moths then leg eggs and both the hatched larvae and moths feed on any neglected or abandoned comb. They can destroy a comb system as fast as bees can lay comb, so the wax moths pose an incredible problem, Kavala. Since the moths don’t effect the bees, many people consider them harmless, but the combs are so utterly destroyed that it can limit the ability of the bees to store food when they are constantly having to draw comb.” Collin said, looking a little frustrated and giving the Petri dish with the pinned moth a slight tweak with his hand.

“They can really weaken a hive, I bet.” Kavala said. “I mean, first they limit the cells the bees have available to reproduce, right? And then they get into hives with foulbrood, starvation and perhaps a queenless situation… when the moths destroy the rest of the home, the colony will fail. So they can be a turning point and make a difference if a colony is going to recover.” Kavala speculated. Collin agreed.

“Exactly, and that’s why they are so dangerous. Look closely. Memorize what these moths look like. They should be destroyed if found.” He urged.

Kavala nodded, and carefully picked up the Petri dish again. She opened her journal and where she’d taken notes on the wax moths, she then set out to sketch one. She would catch a live specimen too, but not until her hives were inundated. Until then she would rely on sketches and what Collin told her.

“So what is the solution to the wax moth problem?” Kavala asked, curious what Collin would say.

He smiled. “Strong colonies. They tend not to bother them because the bees are healthy and can dig out the moths and evict the larva and just make it miserable on pests when they are thriving. But when you do get hives that are infected, there are several other things you can do to keep from loosing a weak colony all together. If you have strong colonies, give the comb back into the care of the bees by hanging them over strong colonies. The strong bees wont tolerate the moths and soon your problem will be gone.” Collin said. Kavala nodded. She looked thoughtful and then asked one more question.

“Moths cannot survive in harsh freezing weather either. I wonder can you subject the comb to cold weather, say leave them out in the winter if there is any doubt, and that will kill any larva, moths, or eggs left?” Kavala asked and Collin nodded.

“Exactly. Now, let me put the moths away since you’ve seen them and sketched them, and lets talk about small hive beetles.” He said, happy that his Konti apprentice was picking up on the pests fast.

by **Kavala** on November 4th, 2013, 9:25 pm

Collin reshuffled his jars until the moths were put away and the hive beetles were taken out. He handed her a glass square box with tiny beetles inside of it. Kavala was surprised. They didn’t look like beetles she knew... well the big black ugly kind. Instead they were pearly white and looked much like honey bee eggs. He had larvae floating in alcohol too, but the color could have been deceptive since the alcohol tended to tint the larvae a darker color than it actually was. “Is this color true to form?” Kavala asked, already sketching the tiny beetles for her notes.

“No. They are truly white their whole life. They actually look like young wax moth larvae, so much so that they are often confused. And its interesting too because small hive beetles and wax moths often infest the same hives. If a hive gets weak, watch out. Sometimes, as a beekeeper, if you aren’t paying attention, the presence of these things in your hives indicates you have a weak one.” Collin said.

Kavala was busy counting legs as he spoke. “Six legs and two pairs of wings… wings are reddish brown to black in color and are a few millimeters long… weird. White… darkening as it gets older to black. Oh I see… the difference. A wax moth larva has legs on its thorax and prolegs on its abdomen; whereas a small hive beetle has six legs only on its thorax. Oh now I can see the difference!” Kavala exclaimed, then made the proper notes in her notebook. “So why are they so dangerous to honeybees?” Kavala asked, holding the jar up again, now that her sketch of the adult beetle was finished.

Collin looked thoughtful for a moment. “It has to do with their lifecycle.” He started out. “When a hive is strong, they can have beetles in their presence, sometimes in large numbers, and the beetles don’t affect the hive. But once it gets weakened, the beetles tend to become opportunistic and begin to lay a tremendous amount of eggs above what they usually would. Once they hatch, which I believe is just in a day or so, they begin to feed. They will tear through a bee colony’s pollen stores and honey. They will even eat the nectar, and finally when that food source runs out, they will dig out the brood and begin eating the young. They tunnel through the comb, like the wax moth larvae do, and can get at it from behind without bothering the caps. They can cause the honey to run out of the cells, leaking everywhere throughout their tunnels, and in short order this can turn a neat and clean hive into a sticky mess. In extreme cases, Kavala, the bees will abandon the nest altogether to get away from the beetles.” He said. Kavala was rapidly writing as Collin spoke, her alarm growing. When she finished, she sat down her quill and picked up the beetle again. She looked at it with new eyes.

“Its incredible. Such a small delicate thing can do so much damage. “ She said, looking thoughtful and a little intimidated. “How do I try to discourage infestations to being with, Collin?” Kavala asked. Again, her mentor looked thoughtful.

“Well, I’d remove any equipment from the apiary when a colony dies unexpectedly. You don’t want empty equipment hanging around attracting pests. I’d also extract honey immediately from supers after removing them from the hive. Just having honey comb laying around will attract beetles.” He said, then tapped his chin, trying to find more examples. “Keep your hives and the area around the hives super clean. Don’t leave old wax lying around and don’t feed your bees old wax. Just let them draw new comb.” He said, confident. “You should also remove excess supers from the colony. Empty frames draw pests. And finally… minimize the time you inspect colonies. Especially this is true if you are looking for pests to begin with. When the hives get crowded, then add more frames in.” With that he shrugged, checked over her sketch and notes, and nodded. “This shouldn’t be extremely hard. Most of it is clear cut and straight forward.” Collin remarked, confident in Kavala’s ability.

Kavala nodded. She wasn’t so sure. These pets seemed complicated. But Collin continued.

“Now, Yellow Jackets, Ants, and Earwigs.” He started out, placing down more Petri dishes that housed the things for Kavala too look at. He started with ants and earwings. “Again, Kavala, the best thing you can do is manage for strong hives so your hives themselves can defend against ants and earwigs." He said, getting ready for a huge lecture. Kavala knew it was coming. Collin had talked about his war with yellow jackets before with her.

by **Kavala** on November 5th, 2013, 7:25 pm

Collin got comfortable and reached over to pick up a jar of yellow jackets that were floating in alcohol. Rather than being all alike, Kavala could tell they were all different. “I consider them my enemy, Kavala. They do the most damage to hives of anything else around here… discounting the wax moths and the hive beetles. Yellow jackets are rough on my girls. They raid the hives, stealing food stores, larvae, adult bees, and doing all kinds of damage. If a hive is not strong, it cannot fend off yellow jackets. So the presence of Yellow Jackets is indicative of a hive that might be going from a strong status to a weak status, because enough yellow jackets can take them down.” He said, looking a little angry. “And you can’t really bait and trap them because the things that draw them in will also draw in the honeybees, so you have to understand what they eat that the bees won’t touch and go from there.” Kavala nodded, following what hes saying.

“I’ve seen them rob my hives too. I’ve actually witnessed them grabbing a bee and flying off with them struggling in the yellow jacket’s grip. Its sad and angering. I didn’t know how to stop them.” Kavala said, meeting Collin’s gaze.

“Well, the best way to stop yellow jackets is to know thy enemy. If you understand their life cycles, then its easier to figure out how to kill them. I’ve been studying them for about ten years and I think I have it figured out. Break the lifecycle and cut down their numbers. Only, we’re talking small things, bee sized. Its hard to dig them out when they are really digging in. But… nevertheless, its possible.” Collin said.

“The best way to kill them, I’ve found, is to follow them home and destroy their nests. When they get a big bunch of food – like snagging a bee from your hive – then they are going to take it in a straight flight line back to their nest. So you need to follow that yellow jacket and see where it goes. If you know where it goes, then you can often locate the nest and destroy it. They nest all sorts of places. They can be in trees, in the ground, in walls, all over. You just have to find where they are and stop them.” Collin said.

Kavala looked thoughtful. “Do you tear the nests out, burn them, bury them.. what?” She asked. Collin smiled.

“You do what you can depending on where the nest is. My favorite method is burning them out, but I will settle for just stomping on them, crushing their nests, and then burying them. If you just bury them, you can’t always be sure they won’t dig their way out. But if they are dead then dead jellowjackets can’t dig.” He affirmed.

Kavala laughed. “I feel bad talking about the outright slaughter of a group of creatures. But its so true. They did a lot of damage on my hives last year. I wish there was a way to trap them or kill them where they are raiding. It would be satisfying for me to see them die where they are raiding… and left alone if they go raid natural sources.” Kavala said.

Collin looked thoughtful and then raised a hand with his finger uplifted. “You know, you can build a yellow jacket trap, but its not what you might expect. I’ll show you.” He said, moving finally by pushing off the desk he was leaning on and fetching something down off the shelf.

“They are not extremely bright creatures. They really aren’t. And they are greedy and gluttonous. This is a simple wide-mouthed can. I’ve sunk a brick in the bottom of the can that has a small hole in it… most bricks do from the brick making process. Fill the can up with water. Then take a piece of stiff wire or a stick and stuff it into the whole in the brick, making it stand upright. The wire needs to be longer than the can, so it sits upright above the water by about six to ten inches. Then you hang a piece of meat on the stick, either impaling it through the wire or wood. The riper the better too, you want the pungent smell to attract the yellow jackets. Honeybees are attracted to sweet things just like yellow jackets are, but they don’t’ like rotten meat at all whereas the yellow jackets go nuts.” Collin said, then waited for Kavala to comment.

“I don’t understand. The yellow jackets are just going to come eat the meat and fly away. Is it poisoned or something?” Kavala asked, looking perplexed.

“No!” Collin said, laughing. “It’s the greed factor on yellow jackets. They will eat at that meat until they are too gorged to fly. Then they will keep eating until they are too gorged to hang on. They drop down to rest… in a normal situation it would be on the ground to digest a bit. But in this situation they fall straight down into the water and drown. You’ll kill a ton of them that way.” He assured her.

Kavala grinned. “And how harmless too. The honeybees will stay away from it and the yellow jackets will die because their greed made them unable to fly and swim.” She said, taking an even closer look at the trap now. “Honestly you can make this out of anything… in any sort of setup, so long as the principle is the same and the yellow jackets take the bait and are greedy. How smart is that? Did you think up this whole scenario yourself or did you tearn to do it yourself?” She asked excited.

“I figured it out from watching the yellow jackets functions and putting various bait out to see what they’d feed on. It didn’t take me long to figure it out though.“ He said, grinning. “When you are a beekeeper for the orchards, you do tend to have a lot of time on your hands.” He said, smiling. “Especially after all the crops have been harvested, the trees pruned, and nothing to do all winter but wait. I then have my bees to mess with.” He admitted, laughing.

But there was still more to the yellow jacket issue, and Kavala knew it.

by **Kavala** on November 5th, 2013, 8:01 pm

Kavala nodded. “What about the lifecycle. You were going to teach me the life cycle of the yellow jackets to help me figure out how best to hung them.” She reminded him, carefully taking notes in her journal.

Collin pursed his lips together and looked thoughtful. “Okay, yellow jackets are totally different than honeybees. Even their lifecycles vary greatly.” He started out, looking thoughtful, as if not sure where to begin.

“As you know the queen is the most important of the hive in terms of Yellow Jackets. The same is true of the Queen for honeybees. However, unlike honeybees, all the yellow jackets except the queen die off in the winter as far as I can tell. So lets start talking about winter. The queen has already mated and she’s going to go into this state of being almost dead. I’ve seen them, found them even, when I bring in the wood for the stove. Sometimes they are holed up in between loose bark and core wood in the wood pile. I always strip down my boards before I burn them and check. Anyhow, one year I found a bunch of them in the wood pile and dropped them into a jar with a lid on it that had holes in it. I filled the jar with sawdust from the city mill, and waited. I wanted to see if they were actually dead or just in some sort of state like bears do. Low and behold, in the spring when it first started warming up, I got a whole jar full of queens to wake up. But wait, backing up, I knew that was going to happen actually. Because as soon as I brought the wood in from the cold and found my first queen and contained her, I put her in a jar on the hearth and I think the heat woke her as well. So I had a fairly good idea it was just like hibernation in bears.” He added.

Kavala nodded. “So literally they could be anywhere. Wood piles, in the bark of trees, hollow logs, stumps, or even structures we ourselves have built. Interesting. I wonder if limiting where they can winter over would greatly reduce their numbers. Because we store all our wood inside where it’s warm and our buildings are stone.” She mused as Collin continued.

“So the weather warms up… Queens wake up… and suddenly they begin to nest.” Collin said. Kavala nodded, following him. “She begins to build a nest from the things she can chew up like plant fibers, cloth, anything. Her nest is going to look like its made of paper. Once she gets started, and I mean it doesn’t have to be a big nest at all, she begins to lay. She’s already fertile from being mated the previous year. So those first few eggs hatch into larvae and the queen then feeds them with all kinds of things she scavenges. Honey, meat, fish, insects. These children grow to be workers, not able to reproduce themselves. They expand the nest for her, keep building, then take over the care of the queen and her young. They begin to bring in all sorts of food, but the easiest to get is what they can steal from honeybees.’ Collin said.

“How big do these nests get? I know our hives get to be around 50,000 to 60,000 bees, but it doesn’t seem like there are that many wasps.” Kavala asked.

“There aren’t that many, no. I’d guess around five thousand bees inside a typical yellow jacket nest.” Collin said, then continued. “So after she has enough sterile females and the nest is at full size, the queen starts producing fertile males and females. They leave the colony to mate. Mating, of course, kills the males and leaves the newly fertilized females to go in search of hibernation locations. By that time, it’s growing cold you see, and its well into the fall. And thus it starts all over again. The queens hide, hold out during the winter, and then emerge when it gets warm to start the cycle anew.” Collin added, looking rather thoughtful.

“Well, that’s really good to know.” Kavala said, taking thorough notes. “But it seems to me that finding all the fertile queens and killing them won’t be happening, so we’ll have to stick to following bloated slow thieves back to their hives and killing them that way.” She said, shaking her head in disgust.

Collin nodded. “Exactly, but its still important to know.” He added.

“Yes, because you never know what will happen in the future or what idea you will get. It might even be possible to build the best queen hibernation lure ever and bait queens to come hibernate in something together and then destroy that.” Kavala suggested, using her brain. Collin looked thoughtful, then grinned, and nodded.

“That would be ingenious, absolutely ingenious.” He praised as Kavala grinned. She felt the more knowledge someone had on something, the easier time they had dealing with things, especially solving problems.

“So are we done with pests?” Kavala asked causing Collin to laugh.

“No way. We still have a ton of other things to discuss. The main thing I wanted to talk to you about is mites. But I’m going to save that for last. Until then lets go through fairly quickly a few other things.” Collin said, putting more emphasis on the mites than she’d suspected he would.

“So, the next pest is mice. You want to absolutely keep mice out because they eat honey, chew comb, and build huge nests that can interfere with air flow and really irritate the honeybees. The hive is warm and protected, so mice move in really easily. They tend to get into hives only during cold weather… so make sure you put an entrance reducer on the hive. That means you nip the entrance down to a tiny opening that’s not over three-eights of an inch. If the entrance is larger, use a strip of wire netting over it and cut it down. Bees don’t like the smell of mice, so you need to keep them out or the bees will leave. And if you are feeding, the mice will eat all their food before the bees can because they are bigger, stronger, and seem to not mind stings.” Collin said, looking amused.

Kavala nodded.

“So that’s an easy control. Good. Just make sure they aren’t in and that they didn’t get in and then get trapped. Got it.” Kavala said, taking notes. When she got back to The Sanctuary, she’d make sure all her hives had entrance reducers.

“So what about other predators? Like something bigger?” Kavala asked, knowing there were more.

“Skunks, bears, and birds are about all you have to worry about in terms of predators. Occasionally a deer will knock over a hive,b ut I don’t think you’d see that at your place. Unless, of course, it was a horse running over the hive.” Collin said, looking amused.

Kavala nodded. “Skunks travel at night so they scratch on the hives after dark. I’ve already seen that.. I thought the only thing that could really control that was fencing off the hives.” Collin nodded.

“Very good. That’s it. That’s skunks. Now on to bears. Bears will utterly destroy you hives. They will tear them down, eat everything in them, and leave the bees homeless and damaged. About the only way to control a bear once it has found a hive is to kill it. Fences won’t hold it, and they aren’t easily scared away. So just kill it, eat the meat or feed it to your dogs, and call it even.” Collin said, looking bored now. Kavala could tell he wanted to get on to the mites.

“So what about birds? I don’t think they really do due total damage. I mean I’ve sat out with my hives and seen them eating the dead bees off the ground. Bee Eaters are often blamed for populations being taken down, but the truth is they will eat more yellow jackets and mosquitoes as well. So don’t do anything to them. If you want to keep them away from where you are breeding queens, if say you are into that, then I suggest silver fabric or shiny metal things hung in trees to scare the birds. That’s about all we can do.” He said, looking happy.

“Ready for mites?” He asked. Kavala nodded, wondering what was so special about them.

by **Kavala** on November 12th, 2013, 10:15 pm

Kavala was a little excited for the next pest. Mites didn’t excite her, but the fact that unlike other pests in beekeeping, there was a lot a beekeeper could do with or about mites. Collin had told her a bit about mite control earlier, but now they were going to actually do something about mites and see them first hand. Kavala was excited about that.

“Okay, Kavala, lets start on this. These mites are easy to see with your eyes. But I have a magnifying glass as well. It helps when looking at your bees to see if they have them too. But I’ll show you how to sample for mites that will help you understand more about them.” Collin said, taking down a small jar that was big enough for maybe three fingers to be inserted in. He took out a glass plate, opened the jar, and dumped a series of dried bugs out onto the plate. The mites were disgusting looking. That much was true.

The females, as Collin pointed out, were huge reddish brown creatures with oval shapes that were almost one to two millimeters long. They had flattened curved bodies that fit into the abdominal folds of the bees and could sit there unobstructed in any sort of condition – flying, crawling, and the shape even helped protect hem from the bees normal cleaning habits. The creatures just couldn’t grab the mites easily and pull them off. Kavala studied one under the magnification glass and then quickly sketched it into her notebook. The whole time she was frowning. They were truly grotesque.

When Kavala was done, Collin continued. “Bees have a terrible time dealing with these. I’m not sure why. But better more cleanly bees do better. I’ve seen even some hives that seem to know when the mites are in drone comb and tear the undeveloped drone out of the hive and dump it outside where the mites on it die.” He said.

Kavala looked confused. “I don’t understand…” She answered, putting her sketching pencil down and tapping the plate with the dead mites on it. She leaned closer still looking at them through the magnification glass.

“Lets back up and talk about their lifecycle.” He said, looking thoughtful. “The mite shave three forms… eggs, nymphs, and adults. The adults look different between the sexes as you can see from my stash of dead mites. You can’t tell eggs and nymphs apart. The nymphs look like worms that have eight legs and a pointed mouthpart. They look transparent white. They look sort of like worms, but have a circular body that does not develop the huge oval the parents have until after they molt and get to be adults. Their whole life cycle, almost, happens in the cells where the bees reproduce as well.” Collin said, leaning forward and finally taking a seat.

Kavala nodded, keeping up, and quickly taking notes.

“Adult females can be found on adults or immature honey bees. But they don’t reproduce on them. They reproduce in the brood chambers of honeybees deep in the cells. The eggs, nymphs and immature adults never leave. The males never leave the brood cells at all, in any phase. Only the females get too.” Collin said, grinning at the irony of the liberated females in bee mites.

“Must be nice. Good thing you’re an adult male human and not a mite.” Kavala laughed, still writing furiously. She dipped her quill in the ink and kept writing.

“Adult female bee mites have two stages. One stage is called phoretic and the other stage is called reproductive. The phoretic stages of female mites involve the mites hitching rides on adult bees, accompanying them anywhere, and then passing from bee to bee to bee as they crawl all over one another in their colonies. During this part of their lives, the mites can often be found between the abdominal segments of the bees. They p puncture the soft tissue between the segments and feed on the blood of the bees through the holes.” Collin said, and Kavala frowned, looking disgusted.

“Yuck. So because they look like this, flattened, they can get away with resting between the segments and not causing too much discomfort. Do they get fat and fall off like ticks do in the wild?” Kavala asked.

Pausing in his lecture, Collin pulled out a jar with dead bees in it. "Yes, usually bees have one or two mites on them, no more. These are bees I deliberately gave to starving mites so you could see them clearly." He added. They had mites on them, and looked almost purposely infested because the mites were thick on them and not as he'd described having just usually one mite or so per bee.

Kavala examined them closely, made a sketch, and frowned up at Collin, showing him her displeasure.

Collin nodded, understanding and feeling the same way. They were both attached to their bees. “It’s definitely like that. We find them at the bottom of the hive all the time if you put a pale colored board in it where you can see where mites have fallen and they aren’t lost in the grass or sand beneath the hives.” Kavala nodded noting that as Collin continued. “Mites can move from colony to colony while females are in this stage. They can do it naturally but also beekeepers can add bees to weak colonies from strong colonies and introduce these creatures on frames of brood. Moving hives, catching swarms, all things that transport mites around. You must be careful and watch for these if you do move bees or infuse colonies and do that type of thing.” Collin cautioned.

Kavala nodded, still taking notes. “I think I understand. Is there a way to treat bees for mites?” She asked, curious to know.

Collin nodded. “Yes, but we aren’t done with the lifecyle yet.” The Konti nodded.

“When the phoretic stage ends, the blood of the bees they have fed on seems to spur reproduction and so they enter the reproductive stage. I have estimated just by observation that the phoretic stage lasts from five to ten days, maybe a bit longer or a bit shorter. And brood must be present in the hive. So after that, the females enter the brood cells. They must enter the brood before larva is capped but after an egg is laid. That waxy capped substance guards against mite infestation, but it also secures mites into the cell if they are there pre-capping. And if they are there pre-capping they feed on the larva inside unobstructed. So she finds a larva that is almost ready to be capped, crawls into that bees cell, and she’ll bury herself in the food at the bottom of the cell. Once the larva has gotten big enough to eat most of the food, the mite then is uncovered and the real horror begins. Once the mite is exposed, it climbs on the larva and begins feeding. The mite defecates on the cell walls and then lays an egg in that material. If the female hadn’t had contact with a male, male mites hatch. But if she’s been fertilized, much like a queen bee, she’ll lay females. In six or seven days of feeding, they turn into adults. Once as adults, if different groups are present in the cell, they mate, and the whole process starts again. Once the adult females reach a certain point, about the time the bee larva hatches from the cell, they then move out of their reproductive stage and go back into the phoretic stage.” Collin said. Kavala felt sick to her stomach.

“So how many mites can one female produce to survive in one cell and to feed on the bee babies?” Kavala asked, quietly disturbed by the fact the mites were around. “Well, luckily I think they only see one to adulthood per every cell, sometimes two if it’s a drone cell. That’s why its vital that you remove excess drone cells that are produced off your frames. Mites prefer drone cells because the cell is physically so much bigger, they have more room, and drones take a lot longer to produce so the mites have extra feeding time.” Collin said. Kavala nodded, thinking that it made perfect sense.

Continued In: Bee Thoughtful and Proactive.

by **Taylani** on November 13th, 2013, 2:45 pm

Kavala

Skills :

Lores :

Notes :

Solo [The Sanctuary] Bee A Pest