Varroa Mite: The Silent killer

No single disease, organism or bee-hater has killed more bees then the Varroa mite. These ectoparasites originate from asia but are now found almost all throughout the world. The mite is one of the largest parasites in relation to its host and the human equivalent of this mite would be like having a basketball sized parasite attached to your back! Not a pleasant thought! All Varroa mites that you see attached to bee's are female. Males are used simply for reproduction and never fully mature. A Varroa mite population can explode very quickly and do serious damage to a hive.

Nosema Lab instructions

The purpose of this lab is to determine if any Nosema is present within your bee hive. Nosema is a fungal infection of bees akin to the human common cold but can be quiet serious for a hive. A method that can BEE used to test for nosema is collecting a sample of bees, crushing them in a mortar and pestle and examining your sample under a microscope to directly identify nosema spores in the bee's intestines. The number of spores in a bee's digestive system can be determined using a heamocytometer, a grid in which you count the number of spores in a square and multiply that number by four million.

Common Bee Diseases

Firstly it seems there are a lot of things bees have to deal with, I feel bad for the little guys. There are many diseases and parasites that can infest a hide american foul-brood, chalk-brood, nosima and the infamous varroa mite to name a few. It seems that most disease can be avoided by simple hygienic handeling of  any tools or equipment that comes in contact with the hive. Identification and early treatment of a disease or any mites present in the hives seems imperative to successful treatment of any disease in the hive.