Varroa Mites Are a Honeybee's 8-Legged Nightmare | Deep Look
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 23 ต.ค. 2023
- Every year, up to half the honeybee colonies in the U.S. die. Varroa mites, the bees’ ghastly parasites, are one of the main culprits. After hitching a ride into a hive, a mite mom hides in a honeycomb cell, where she and her offspring feed on a growing bee. But beekeepers and scientists are helping honeybees fight back.
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Photo of varroa mite: D. Kucharski K. Kucharska/Shutterstock.com
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To feed, a varroa mite nestles between a honeybee’s protective plates. It digs in with its gnarly mouth, the gnathosoma. The mite sinks it into a crucial organ called the fat body, a layer of tissue that lines the bee’s abdomen.
Sort of like the human liver, the fat body helps the bee break down harmful stuff, including pesticides. And it maintains the bee’s immune system. So, when varroa mites attack the fat body, they seriously weaken the bee.
The mites can also transmit a virus that causes a bee to be born with deformed wings, no good for flying.
--- Where do varroa mites come from?
Varroa mites evolved on eastern honeybees in Asia, known by the scientific name Apis cerana. Only recently have the mites moved onto western honeybees (Apis mellifera), the species that beekeepers maintain in the Americas, Europe and Africa. Varroa mites were first seen in the U.S. in the 1980s. They are now a pest of western honeybees around the world.
--- How do you get rid of varroa mites?
Beekeepers monitor the number of varroa mites in their hives throughout the year. One test they perform is called the “sugar shake.” The test consists of measuring a half-cup of bees (about 300), putting them in a mesh-covered jar, adding 2 tablespoons of confectioners’ sugar, and shaking for about 30 seconds. This causes the mites to lose their grip on the bees. The beekeepers then empty the sugar onto a tray and count the number of mites that fell through the mesh. A varroa mite infestation that represents between 1% and 3% of bees in a hive is enough to prompt beekeepers to apply pesticides to kill the mites, says associate professor of cooperative extension in apiculture Elina L. Niño, who trains beekeepers at the University of California, Davis.
An effort is underway to keep mites at bay by selectively breeding honeybees that can fight back. Scientists at the U.S. Department of Agriculture and private companies like VP Queen Bees in South Carolina are breeding bees that can sniff out varroa mites and uncap the cells they’re in before they can reproduce. This bee behavior is called varroa sensitive hygiene.
At Purdue and Central State universities, researchers are using a different approach, breeding bees known as “mite-biters” or “ankle-biters” for their ability to kill varroa mites by chewing off their legs.
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---+ GIF CHALLENGE Shoutout!
It was a tough question in our TH-cam Community Tab GIF challenge! The organ the mites feed on is the "fat body," and its closest analog in humans in the liver. One fan got the question partially right, by answering "liver:"
@bssn9469
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#varroamites #deeplook #honeybees - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
These mites doomed many of my hives when I was beekeeping, such a shame
Sorry to hear that!
Oh no! I'm sorry to hear that! :(
Let the mites live their lives. They are animals like any other and deserves to live
@@nonhotrovatounnomemigliore9221 nope get them out and protect our bees.
Yes welcome the mites into your hive
That was very creepy. Glad the bees are finally being helped to figure out how to fight back.
Oh right let's kill an innocent might just because nature made it a parasite animal that hurts bees
Bees don't need help. Wild bees do fine same with my bees that I caught in a swarm trap. Bees that a prevented from doing what they naturally do is the problem.
@@iowavikingyeah all that the pesticides do is make the mites eventually stronger whilst the bees are still defenceless
@@iowavikingSometimes, a little help does wonders. That's why in some cases, people will intervene to raise chances of success.
@@iowaviking not true. not all wild bees are doing fine, same as not all cultured bees are effected. i've seen mites on wild bees and wild bumblebees. just because you don't witness it doesn't mean it's not a thing. it's just not controlled as much as cultured bees for obvious reasons.
Somehow bees have learned that they can use mycelium powder to shake off these mites. Paul Stamets talks about it, they will roll around in the powder and it either kills or shakes off the mites. Amazing how nature always provides a solution
This is amazing
How would it get the powder?
Any good sources to read on that? I see that he developed mycelium food products to help bees survive, but couldn’t find anything about them rolling around in it to remove mites. Maybe I just missed it?
An edible pesticide for 🐝?
@@TasmanianWolvesby touching a mushroom...
Sadly, we got the varroa mite here in Australia. It has moved from the "contain-at-all-costs" stage to the "management" stage now :(
Thanks I was about to google if we have it here. I wish there was something ordinary people could do in their gardens to help the fight against these incest perpetrators. 🤷🏻♀️
It is sad, but the moment varroa came to Australia, it's over, any attempt to contain it is 100% futile. Probably you wasted a lot of money to have an outcome that was known from the beginning.
At least other countries have been fighting them long enough that there’s a lot of good information out there now on how to keep a handle on them.
Newcastle was ground zero for the Australian infection.
@@jackvos8047The busiest port in Australia
My bees descend from what was a wild colony that resided in a tree on school land, unfortunately the tree was felled and the mother hive lost now but their legacy continues. This mother hive could have been there for 50 years, it's been there for as long as anyone could remember. On to my bees, not treated my bees now for 3 years , the mother hive was never treated, never inspected , and yet it was huge and swarmed each year like clockwork. I actually feel the bees I keep have adapted to veroa, yes there are mites but the numbers are low and the bees look to keep it that way all by themselves. I only split healthy colonies off, weak colonies will get a booster Frame or 2 but if they fail, they fail....the goal is to only push on with hives that look after themselves.
I believe Honey bees will overcome veroa, if given a chance.
Thank you for sharing your story.
are they fighting the mites though? Find any dead mites? I'm wondering what is keeping the mites from destroying the colony.
Exactly. We need to start focusing on helping the colonies get stronger genetics, not repeatedly dumping more chemicals on them in the hope that the chemicals will kill the problem faster than it will kill the bees.
@@EspressoBreve I just inspect as normal, check for disease and issues and react to weak colonies as explained above. I don't go overboard, if they still fail, they fail, I just move on with the stronger hives.
I've never treated my bees in 14 years. Selection is the key, not "help".
its mind blowing how selective breeding got so advanced. 3/4 into the video I was thinking "how the fuck are we going to help the bees" then you dropped them the "ah don't worry scientists with their science are (somehow) selectively breeding bees to chew the mites off" im like "how the fuck are they doing that!" and then you showed us. im completely mind blown at the whole process this is some shit not even science fiction predicted.
5:45
Mite: It is my deepest hope that you, let me finish my job!
Bees: nice speech, say goodbye to your LEGS!
Nice reference
Fun fact: the mite has finally arrived in Australia. One of the last major holdouts that were able to keep the pest away for years until recently.
You call that “fun”
@dianalacson238 Its dry humour, americans dont understand that unfortunately.
Likely Australia will start seeing increased events of colony collapse disorder, since the spread of that seems to correlate directly to varroa mite spread and infestations.
only australia is dry enough@@DG-iw3yw
Thankfully we finally have methods to fight it.
Hopefully the leg-eaters defeat the liver-eaters
Keep up the good work guys ❤
Thank you! Will do!
I've been watching your videos for years! 🎉 These videos helped me go from fearing bugs to adoring them! I now take photographs of any insects I find thrpughout my days and study and research them! I've now helped others to also be less afraid. Thank youuuu for these incredible macro shots and information! ❤ 🎉
Your videos are the best!! ❤❤
That is awesome! #inspo
For me it's the opposite, I was never afrad of bugs but now my whole body is itching. xD
Just kidding, great to hear that TH-cam has a therapeutic function for you.
That’s so cool!
I have been watching these videos for a while 4+ years and this is already one of my favorites
Wonderful! We love making videos about bees.
"If you ever feel useless, just remember that Varroa Mites exist just to make a honey bee's life a worst life."
I've got a big grin on my face after seeing that bees were cutting the mites' legs off. Way to go bees, keep fighting back!
Deep Look has a deep place in my heart. I am always sad when an episode ends because they never fail to be so compelling and so well executed! I just want more learning!!! Thank you for all your hard work. ❤
5:30 absolutely was not expecting to see this.
This was awesome but a little creepy too! I love Bees but the Varoa Mites made me want to itch! 😆
Thank you Deep Look for another great upload! 💜✌
Glad you enjoyed!
Even if they wiped out the entire cast of Bee Movie, I still wouldn't like 'em.
🙃
لا 😂😂😂😂😂😂
It's so fun to see bees as a liquid 😂
ayo?
How does the beekeeper just grab a handful of bees and not get stung?
Usually they smoke them, I think they are docile at the moment.
Right?!?!?! I get sting just by thinking about them😅😅😅😅😅😅😅
They have been domesticated
Definitely look into historical beekeeping techniques. Pretty cool stuff.
Mostly, just stay chill and they stay chill.
the answer is Love.
While I know human this mindset is, but it's baffaling how small things can get. A small mite on a bee is so tiny. Getting down to molecule size is something I really cant even comprehend
The bug finally breached quarantine in NSW and Victoria, Australia last year. So many hives were destroyed as a fire break to prevent further spread but it's still popping up here and there. 😔
Thank you for leaving us with a look at the resolution of this crippling parasite. Was worried they " mite " kill all the bees. 🐝
I see what you did there
This is such a good video, I'm always enthralled by your shots and how easy to understand you make them but this one takes the cake. Great work!
Wow very informative. Glad researchers are finding ways to eliminate the mites. Never in my life did i expect to watch a bee be inseminated. Lol but still very interesting
The US government shouldn't be credited for anything. The laws and practices they made in the name of research was what brought the mites over and independent breeders are doing more effective work in bringing about hygienic bees
Thank you for making these educational videos!
Our pleasure!
I might have missed it, but how does the eastern bees defend themselves against these mites?
I believe that it is the same way that people are breeding western honeybees to fight them. Uncap infected cells, chew the legs off the mites, and then kill the larva (mostly just because bees don't have the behaviors to recap a brood cell). Also, grooming each other to remove mites.
Hi @kennnnnn1015, I produced this episode of Deep Look. Thank you for watching and for your question. Eastern honeybees (Apis cerana) groom the mites off each other. In addition, in eastern honeybee hives varroa mites only are able to reproduce inside cells where male bees, known as drones, are developing. These bees remove mites from cells where workers are growing. And when a mite makes it into a worker bee cell, the larva dies in response, leaving the mite without a food source. "There’s this self-sacrificing thing that happens where the bee larva just dies and that seals the mite inside of the cell with them," said entomologist Samuel Ramsey, at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Cheers, Gabriela
@@gabrielaquiros1966thank you so much!!! This kind of addressing follow up questions by the very people producing the content is why I ADORE Deep Look ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
seems these european honeybees are kinda vulnerable to so many things... they also get murked by the asian giant hornet, or "murder hornet", which japanese honeybees have adapted to do this death ball manouvre and defeat individual hornets; but european ones just go 1v1 and lose.
is europe just a really chill place or something?
@@gabrielaquiros1966very cool. Do they avoid eating the mite due to the virus it can potentially carry?
Fascinating. Those poor bees, some of this video was a bit hard to watch. I'm glad to hear there are strategies for fighting back!! Bees really are so, incredibly important.
For clarification if anybody’s interested. The treatment for Verona mites in a hive is technically a pesticide, but it’s formic acid which is naturally occurring in the bees so you fill the hive with high quantities of formic acid which come in the form of strips the mites can’t handle it, it’s uncomfortable to humans but The bees can handle it just fine. So, even though it is a pesticide, it’s not what most people would consider pesticide.
Yep. Natural pesticides are cool too
I love these Deep Look videos and so do my young students. I show one of these every now and then and it sparkles so much awe and interest in the students and that leads to so many interesting class discussions. They love it. Many thanks.
Now THIS is The Bee Movie Sequel we need to see.
Pretty insightful! Bee's are such fascinating bugs, and knowing that they too got parasote problems make me care for the little guys even more!
There’s no words to describe how much I love your content !!! It really brings me joy as much as it fascinates me !
Thank you for your hard work !
Wow, thank you! #inspo
Please do a episode on about how East Asian honey bees deal with the Varroa mite.
but girls r not interested in episode like this tho
I love the final phrase 😂
"Hi sugar! what's shaking?"
I wonder how certain animals like these mites avoid the dangers of inbreeding when mating with their siblings.
Excellent as usual. Counterattack with the latest tech is a nice tip. Good & relief to see it, given the relative sizes of them, the damage & suffering caused by mite should predictably devastating!
Agile locomotor capacity of mite is surprising, as well as its unique reproductive strategy, male first, but one. What does that mean in terms of evolution?
On top of a quality content, the best part of this footage is an opening! Much better than any movie trailers. Fabulous!
I always drop everything to watch a new deep look video, always worth it.
Thank you! We love making these videos.
This is amazing footage. Thank you for making it all so clear.
You're very welcome!
Man it must be a nightmare to be a beekeeper right now
Even worse to be a bee.
Perfect timing! I just started doing another binge of your vids today
Perfect!
So awesome! I knew about mites because I used to keep bees, but had no idea such progress was being made to breed bees that fight back. If I ever start beekeeping again I'll really want those genetics!
When a video has me watching with my mouth wide open - Y'all have done a spectacular job.
Thank you ~
Wow! What a well done video. Great labeling and filming. Really top quality. Should be a PBS producer. Thanks. Well done.(I just noticed this is PBS).
Crabs were my nightmare. I thought I just had dry skin on my hairy stomach but once I saw the white skin flakes had legs I freaked out.
These vids are so good, I'm lost in the content till the end.
I learn something new every time I watch. From bat flies to bee mites and beyond. I'm learning while feeling itchy. 😅
I cant get enough of the knowledge from this channel. Love your work, guys n gals
I have never heard of this. Fascinating. Another great video!
This was a Mite-y good episode XD
Seriously though those mites are a huge problem but I didn’t know people bred bees to hunt down the mites, that’s some cool stuff ^^
Nice vid. Would be cool if there were more of them on other types of bees or endangered ones
Never knew parasitoids could be so... Creative with their reproduction.
Using hanging frames lets the bees adjust the size of the cells. They will do this to make a generation of smaller bees that are better able to preen off the mites.
Really informative video and awesome visuals!
wow, I learned something new today. Great video!
Finaly a species that knows how to properly punish its parasites.
Astonishing work as always ❤
Finally, another video about mites
I love your videos they are very informative!
5:16 "Yea. They're eating it." Love the nonchalant tone. 😂
Super cool. And those macro shots 🙌
Thank you 🙌 Hats off to Joshua Cassidy for the filming. #inspo
Very informative video, I honestly had no idea these existed!
amazing video as always
Even though it's an insect, seeing those varroa mites crawl all over those bees made me cringe on their behalf.
This is such a cool video!!
Better idea: breed the mites so the attack yellow jacket colonies
Im intrested why did the bees that interrupted the bee larve with the mite.
Why can't the varroa-mite resistant bees just kill the mite and leave the larva be?
Probably because of the potential for viral infection that the video also mentioned. Once the larval bee has been compromised, the hive doesn't want to run the risk of the infection spreading.
@@Zaxaresmakes sense. Still sad tho..
Thank you for this!! ☺ I was actually wondering what those things were. One time, I saved a bee from drowning and I picked a varroa mite off. I didn't know if it was beneficial or harmful to the bee.
Well, any parasite attached to animal is always harmful. Be it to human or insect...
@@mariuszmoraw3571 Correct. At the time, I knew it was a mite but I didn't know it was a parasite. I know there's certain mites that are actually helpful to their host / have a symbiotic relationship (for example, millipedes and roaches)
Man I did not think I was going to see a bee bust a quick one today
Great video/info. Thanks
Thanks mate that was educating I would’ve never known I shall pass it on and share.
amazing video, thank you so much!!!!
Bloodsucking bee mites aside, 5:30 looks very.... Painful although insects do not have nerves. Is the drone alive?!
Drones pass after mating, both in this human controlled setting and in nature. also insects do have nerves
Of course insects have nerves
Oxalic acid is another good way to treat for mites. It’s organic and doesn’t bother the bees. The only weak point is it will not kill the mites that are on the brood under the cappings, but there are ways to deal with that as well.
What are the ways of dealing with the varroa in the capped brood?
@@gregorymalchuk272 they are allergic to mcdonald's
@@gregorymalchuk272 A brood break stops reproduction and a treatment kills the rest. Trapping the queen to a particular frame and disposing of that frame when they are about to emerge allows them mites on the bees to be treated successfully. Mostly.
Another way of dealing with it is to have a drone frame. Drones take longer to mature to an adult and mites are naturally drawn to them. Remove the drone frame and feed it to the chickens. They love them. Varroa cannot live without a host.
Bees also combat mites by swarming and that creates a brood break and no larva means no additional mites. Unhealthy bees will sacrifice themselves to save the hive.
And infested bees don't have the stamina to fly with the swarm.
Oxalic acid is present in many plants and Formic acid is what fire ants use to defend them selves.
By far, the best way is to have the bees develop a method to take care of them themselves. By selective breeding, some strains are very good at grooming themselves and snatching them out of the cells when they find them. Perhaps all bees will be able to do that at some point.
Small hive beetles are rather nasty too. But that's another story.
Thank you for such an informative video ❤.
your volume setting made me have to nearly double my volume setting to be as loud as the other videos I watched so far this view session
I watched the whole video in the thumb preview thinking "wow this is really high quality", of course it involved PBS.
Every beekeeper should test for them.
Very interesting!!! Thank you!!!
I need to find someone who trusts me as much as that lady trusts some well shaken bees
5:30 I'm an adult. But I couldn't help but laugh when I read the caption.
0:26 the beekeeper adding the sugar to bee like and making a frosted bee donuts 😂
Imagine dinner plate sized mites hiding on human hives(apartment flats)😅
Shotgun noises ensure
this is why keeping colonies together so close is accelerating the destruction of honeybees
This show is always a delight, an area I tend to know absolutely nothing about. It is also great that we are beginning to use more natural remedies, like defensive bee breeding rather than just chemical solutions, which tend to lead to more unintended consequences.
Here's a new idea for a movie sequel:
"Bee Movie: The Fight Against Mites"
You're welcome Jerry Seinfeld
Great stuff!
5:32 Beenis
Those mites move a lot faster than most other mites I see!
Sad, keep up the great work.
You know the problem is serious when they name a species 'destructor'.
The more I learn about insect's parasites, the more I realize they get way more annoyed by things smaller than them than we do. Fleas have a similar predicament to bees.
They got it worse than us. Insect are usually pre-programmed with set of certain reactions, we humans are way more adaptable to situation. Within the same generation we humans can adapt to new parasite while bees... well... they need to adapt behavior to even react. As you can see in video, this mites are visible to bees, yet they not actively chasing them off...
Still don't explain how the mates stop become invisible to the bees
We want more Deep Looks, duh! ❤
Years ago a friend said in Russia they would (freeze) the bees,well almost lower the temperature till the mite falls off they die first then warm them up slowly
Thankyou for the information and time
Our pleasure!
The way varroa mites skitter on a bee makes me scream in disgust! It just makes me want to shrink down and yoink off the bee
Even the bugs, have to worry about bugs.
And those bugs have bugs, and those have bugs...
Finally a new episode!
I remember as a kid me and my sister finding a bumblebee covered in mites and trying to get the mites off with tweezers, sadly to no avail.
Thank you, for sharing. I hope this dream come true and we can get rid of the Varroa distractor. I hate it.