[ExI] walking bees

[spike]

> Are you sure it's not Nosema ceranae and not Varroa?

The bees I found did not have varroa mites, but they could have tracheal
mites.  Hafta cut them open to find out.  Varroa mites ride on the outside
of the bee, so if you have really good eyes you can see them unaided.

The buzz in beekeepers' discussion (sorry {8^D) has been that nosema is seen
in the sick hives, along with a bunch of other viruses and other diseases,
but the prevailing thought is that they are getting all these other things
because they are already weakened by something else.  These would then be
opportunistic infections.

But it might be microscopic diseases that are getting these guys, which
brings me to my next question.  I wonder how much equipment it would take to
detect common bee viruses, and if it is practical for an amateur scientist
to buy the stuff needed to test for them.  Has anyone here ever heard of a
home kit to detect bee viruses?

spike




> -----Original Message-----
> From: extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org [mailto:extropy-chat-
> bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of Eugen Leitl
> Sent: Saturday, June 02, 2007 11:08 AM
> To: extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org
> Subject: Re: [ExI] walking bees
> 
> On Sat, Jun 02, 2007 at 08:28:34AM -0700, spike wrote:
> 
> > I theorized the bees I found might have tracheal mites, which is why I
> > brought them home.  I was going to try to dissect these, but my surgical
> > skills are insufficient I fear.
> 
> Are you sure it's not Nosema ceranae and not Varroa?
> 
> --
> Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org
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