I've asked the students in the Beekeeping occupation to write a quick blog entry about their beek experience this session. Here is what Sebastian Wignall has to say about varroa:
Varroa mite
Varroa mites are very bad for our honey bees because they go on the bees and eat their wings so they can’t fly. which means they can’t go out to get pollen. that’s called curly wing. A way to prevent curly wing is to put a plastic tray in your hive on the bottom and spray it with pam, the one you cook with, than you powder sugar your bees and the other bees will clean each other while they are doing that the bees will knock of the varroa mites down on the screen.These are some varroa on our bees at College Ave.
well not this one...
It's just creepy.
Varroa in the cells of developing drones.
Riding on the back of a worker.
Deformed Wing Virus or Curly Wing Syndrome is an indicator that a colony has a pretty high might load or the bees have a low resistance to the mites. Varroa are the vector for disease.
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