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Varroa damage?
Varroa damage?
We found this bee with deformed wings last week in a hive that passed the sugar roll test with only one mite per 300 bees. Could there be another explanation? We thought maybe it was just very young but didn't know since it seemed to be working the honey comb.
Re: Varroa damage?
Deformed Wing Virus--usually brought by varroa mites. The virus may linger after mite treatments or after reduction in mite population for any reason. I am not overly worried seeing 1 DWV bee in a hive, but if I am seeing several, it is usually an indicator of a varroa problem.
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specialkayme
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Re: Varroa damage?
The photo clearly depicts a DWV infected honey bee.
DWV was present in hives before the introduction of varroa mites. So the presence of DWV doesn't mean, by definition, that varroa are present in high numbers. However varroa are vectors of diseases and viruses, DWV included. Which means high levels of varroa spread viruses quickly. DWV is more visible than some of the other types of viruses they spread, which is why beekeepers observe and note it. If you see a lot of DWV infected bees, there is a high probability you have mite issues.
If your sugar shake provided 1/300 mites (a 0.3% infestation), did you just recently do a mite treatment? If so, give the bees another 3-4 weeks for the viruses to "cycle out." If not, I suspect the sugar shake may have resulted a false negative. I consider it odd to have an infestation level that low for this time of year, if you haven't treated. I'd do a second sugar shake to confirm. Do you see any other symptoms of high mite levels, such as PMS or "snot brood"?
One single DWV infected bee is not a large concern to me either. But typically if I see one, 10+ have crawled away from the hive that I haven't seen. I rarely see just one in a hive though.
DWV was present in hives before the introduction of varroa mites. So the presence of DWV doesn't mean, by definition, that varroa are present in high numbers. However varroa are vectors of diseases and viruses, DWV included. Which means high levels of varroa spread viruses quickly. DWV is more visible than some of the other types of viruses they spread, which is why beekeepers observe and note it. If you see a lot of DWV infected bees, there is a high probability you have mite issues.
If your sugar shake provided 1/300 mites (a 0.3% infestation), did you just recently do a mite treatment? If so, give the bees another 3-4 weeks for the viruses to "cycle out." If not, I suspect the sugar shake may have resulted a false negative. I consider it odd to have an infestation level that low for this time of year, if you haven't treated. I'd do a second sugar shake to confirm. Do you see any other symptoms of high mite levels, such as PMS or "snot brood"?
One single DWV infected bee is not a large concern to me either. But typically if I see one, 10+ have crawled away from the hive that I haven't seen. I rarely see just one in a hive though.
Re: Varroa damage?
We will retest soon and look more carefully to see if there are others with DWV. No treatments have been done this year as we haven't removed honey supers yet. Thanks for the information and help!