Thanks Humberto! I really appreciate this as I commented asking for more info on tropi in the past. Do you know the group who is breeding the “suicidal” bees? I remember you reviewed a paper on survival stock in which it mentioned Papua New Guinea as a place where there wasn’t a lot of treatment but still had Apis Mellifera populations despite varroa jacobsoni and Tropi. I wonder what traits they have.
I'm hoping that some of the research done on varroa might carry over to tropolalapse mites. Paul Stammets is working on a fungus based varroacide. Maybe it would work on the other mites
Hi Humberto, I have been thinking about the mites ability to appear in the new hive. I was considering if the nurse bees feed the new queen on their travels? Could the royal jelly hold some of the mites eggs or be transported in the pollen on their legs given their propensity to be close to the queen bee?
Hi there. There are many many ways for mites to spread and it will be impossible to show all here texting. For example, humans are a big part of the problems by transporting bees everywhere. Another ways is Robbing, where stronger colonies take resorces from weaker ones taking with them all the pests and diseases the weaker colony have. I think this is a good subject for a whole video. Thanks for the idea.
Thanks Humberto. Tropilaelaps is a worry here in Australia, where Varroa has just escaped quarantine and apparently is starting the conquest of the continent. Politics complicate the matter, as they always do, because certain elements of the Greens want the 'European Honeybee' to be eliminated because ... well, no logical reason, they just need things to hate. One question, though, when you say Tropilaelaps I assume you mean T,. clareae, but several species have been described in the genus and Tropilaelaps mercedesae also has been alleged to be a threat to Apis mellifera. Is Tropilaelaps a species complex like Varroa or is it just one species that is spreading?
I tend to avoid complication when explaining this concepts. Yes. There is a couple od species of Tropilaelaps and some of them are spreading. Mercedease being one of them. Coparing with Varroa mites we don't know much about Tropilaelaps.
