# Do I have Tracheal mites?



## Jubilee (Mar 12, 2009)

Do I have Tracheal mites?

Today my Brother noticed that there were dead honey bees in the field just to the South of my hive. So I went and looked there were hundreds of dead bees so I went to look at my hive. There were alot more in front of the hive; some were dead others were dying.

There were brown spots all over in front of the hive on the snow. You might be thinking that they were just dead bees cleaned out of the hive by the rest of the bees and that's what I thought at first but the bees I found were in perfect condition except that they were dead. But dead bees that have fallen to the bottom of the hive look dark and usually their legs and wings are folded up.

The bees I found had their wings spread and looked like they had just landed there and froze. Some of them looked like they had burrowed in the snow head first. A book that I got from the library says that when bees have Tracheal mites you will find brown spots in and on the out side the hive. That's just what I found. It also said the bees will leave the hive to get some fresh air when their trachea get plugged with mites and then freeze. 

The only other thing I can think of is that a few weeks ago I tried make candy out of honey by evaporating the water out of it. After awhile I poured the honey out of the kettle onto a sheet of wax paper it didnt harden like I'd hoped. It was really thick. Somehow the honey leaked onto the tray below. 
Anyway, it was really hard to get off so I figured I would just give it to the bees and let them clean it off. So yesterday I gave it to them. Do you think that would have caused it? I live in Wisconsin if that helps.


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## Michael Bush (Oct 26, 2008)

It does sound like the symptoms of Tracheal mites. Not much you can do at this point. You got some bees who are susceptible. Occasionally this could happen with any bees, but will happen a lot more often with queens from people who treat for Tracheal mites. We have almost wiped out the Tracheal mite issue because most people don't treat anymore. If everyone else would quit treating it would almost cease to be a problem. Try a different queen provided and try raising your own queens from those that are surviving without treating.


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## Jubilee (Mar 12, 2009)

I would like to raise my own queens but this is my only hive and if they die I wont have any and I don't want to spend the money to get another package. The question I have is if I have trecheal mites wouldn't the number of dying bees slowly build up over the weeks? It was just all of a sudden. I went to check on them the next day it was the same thing but there were only about twenty bees that were dying. The rest of the hive seems pretty strong. I have the hive wrapped in a sheet of clear plastic which traps the suns warmth. It keeps the hive pretty warm. Every time I have checked them they were spread through the hive instead of in a cluster. Is it possible they just thought it was spring and came out and froze? I gave them a grease patty but they haven't touched it.


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## Michael Bush (Oct 26, 2008)

Treating at this point won't matter. Menthol won't evaporate in the cold. The grease patty doesn't kill mites, it just masks the odor of young bees. The mites have to find young soft bees so they can chew their way through the edges of the spiricale to get into the trachea. At this point you don't have young bees, you have old bees that they mites have already infested. The grease fools the mites so they can't find the young ones to infest them.

Tracheal mite susceptibility is genetic. The queen mated with many drones and perhaps only one of them was susceptible or passed that trait on. It may be the rest of the bees are from other drones and are quite healthy.


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Maybe you shouldn't worry so much about the mite issue. Since you live in Wisconsin it has been on the cold side for a very long time. If the sun has been shineing real bright(no clouds) and the wind was on the calm side your bees were probably just doing cleansing flights brown spots in the snow and on the hives them selves. They also some times take out dead bees at this time as well as some close to dying leave the hive to die. There are also some that venture to far from the hive and get to cold to make it back to the hive.
Also It must have been warm some as you said you opened the hive. Some thing you should never do when it is below 45F.

 Al


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## Jubilee (Mar 12, 2009)

I had two hives going into winter. The weaker hive died. the few bees that were left to show where the cluster had been had brown stuff all over them. It was kind of like the brown spots that are on the front of my other hive that I think might have trecheal mites. Do you have any idea what happened to the dead colony? The dead colony was a split from my first colony.


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Brown smery stuff in the hive and outside the hive would lead me to think I had nosema creana or nosema apis. The bees get weak and have disentry. They will stop eating if it is creana.

A picture of the hive and brown spots would help.

 Al


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## no1cowboy (May 2, 2004)

This hive has nosema, does your hive look like this?


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## Michael Bush (Oct 26, 2008)

Yes, but add crawling bees and you have typical symptoms for Tracheal mites. Dysentery is common with Tracheal mites.


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Reread the post and didn't see any mention of crawling bees. I still think it is either clensing flights or Nosma.

Warm spring days will soon be in Wisconsin and he can feed a gallon of syrup with fumagilin B in it.

 Al


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## Michael Bush (Oct 26, 2008)

Sorry, I guess I missed that.

Tracheal mites typically in winter have crawling bees, often with "K" wings and dysentary often goes with that... but without the crawling "K" winged bees, I would guess either simple dysentery or Nosema.


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## Jubilee (Mar 12, 2009)

No my hive doesn't quite look like that. They are just spots not as long as the ones in the picture. There were not many bees crawling on the front of the hive but there were about eight flying around. Only about ten percent of the dead bees that I found were 
''K'' winged. What ever it was it seems to have stopped for now at least. What is dysentry? and what does fumagilin B do? Our digital camera is very, very cheap so the pictures I have attached aren't very good and it's hard to see what it actually looks like. 










This is the inside of the outer cover of the colony that died. But the spots look exactly like the ones on the hive that I think has tracheal mites. In the picture the spots look like propolis spots but they aren't.










This is a picture looking down from the top of the frame. The bees have their heads stuck into the cells which makes me think it was starvation but what was the brown stuff all over them?











This is the cluster area. You can't tell much in the picture.


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## no1cowboy (May 2, 2004)

Jubilee said:


> What is dysentry? and what does fumagilin B do?


dysentry is "Diarrhea" & fumagilin is used for treating nosema


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Looks like common starvation to me too. I am placeing my bet on cleansing flights. You never did say if it was sunny or not when they were flying.

 Al


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## Jubilee (Mar 12, 2009)

Yes it was sunny.


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

It has been as cold as 19f here but sunny bright clear skys with nary a bit of wind when the bees have flowen for a cleansing flight.

Some of them were carrying old dead bees out which do look different than new dead bees as they have aged. Some of the bees tend to fly to far and get to cold to make it the rest of the way into the hive. If you were to pick some of those fresher dead looking bees p and take them into a warm place you would soon have warm bees buzzing around.

 Al


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## Jubilee (Mar 12, 2009)

Actually I did collect about twenty dead bees that day. I brought them in the house for about half an hour. They were dead for sure. I was also wondering if you think it is safe to feed the honey from my dead colony to the one that is still alive or will it spread the problem whatever it was?


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## Michael Bush (Oct 26, 2008)

Nosema is one possible cause for dysentery.


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