Monday, June 8, 2015

Chemical Warfare

In previous posts, I discussed how varroa mites have infested bee populations all over the country. But here's the big question: how are they doing it? If an object or insect foreign to the bees infiltrates the hive, the bees are usually fairly quick to remove them. However, this is not happening with the varroa mites.

A study by Michigan State University found that the varroa mites are disguising themselves by smelling like bees. Bees do almost everything based on pheromones, which the mites have emulated so that the bees don't see them as foreign objects or threats.

You can read the whole article by clicking here.

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