Varroa scratching post

[steve1958]

I just saw this on fleabay and thought it an intersting topic to discuss

An anti varroa mite disc measures 120mm across and is simply slipped into the hive so the bees can use it like a scratching post to wound and dislodge their parasites .

Instead of the varroa mites killing bees - now the bees can kill the mites !!!

For sale is a simple gadget that the bees themselves can use to directly kill the varroa mites as and when they attach to their body .

Varroa mites do not live very long with a hole in their back !!

How the hole gets there is down to the infected bee , it knows it has the large parasite attached to its body as it is hurting and weakening it .

The bee rubs itself against the anti varroa mite disc in its hive which immediately abrades and cuts through the mites back exposing its soft internal tissues that ' bleeds out ' and kills it through dehydration


I havent seen the disc so cannot really comment

 

[pargyle]

Interesting ... I have a bee gym and that seems to show a concentration of varroa on the inspection board in the vicinity of the bee gym .. so, some unproven evidence that my bees are scratching mites off or grooming using the bee gym - so - it's possible this would work but who is going to be the first to try it ?

 

[Arfermo]

I just saw this on fleabay and thought it an intersting topic to discuss. An anti varroa mite disc measures 120mm across and is simply slipped into the hive so the bees can use it like a scratching post to wound and dislodge their parasites .Instead of the varroa mites killing bees - now the bees can kill the mites !!!For sale is a simple gadget that the bees themselves can use to directly kill the varroa mites as and when they attach to their body. Varroa mites do not live very long with a hole in their back !! How the hole gets there is down to the infected bee , it knows it has the large parasite attached to its body as it is hurting and weakening it .
The bee rubs itself against the anti varroa mite disc in its hive which immediately abrades and cuts through the mites back exposing its soft internal tissues that ' bleeds out ' and kills it through dehydration
I havent seen the disc so cannot really comment

Is that what is called the "Bee Gym" or have you found something else?

 

[pargyle]

Is that what is called the "Bee Gym" or have you found something else?

No .. Something completely different:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CHEMICAL-...154?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item25a8b190b2

Not seen this before and it does not seem to have been marketed in any beekeeping circles yet ...

Judging from his feedback there haven't been any sold yet.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

PT Barnum must be looking down with a wry smile on his face

 

[Thymallus]

PT Barnum must be looking down with a wry smile on his face

He's probably apoplectic at them ONLY asking £3.99 for a guaranteed varroa killer. But also smiling at the one born every minute.......

 

[pargyle]

He's probably apoplectic at them ONLY asking £3.99 for a guaranteed varroa killer. But also smiling at the one born every minute.......

Well ... we won't know for certain until someone tries one will we ? If it does work then it's the cheapest non-invasive varroa treatment that's yet been invented ... Finman seems to have more mites than anyone else ~ perhaps we should have a whip round and send him one to try out on one of his mite ridden hives ?

 

[Thymallus]

Well ... we won't know for certain until someone tries one will we ?

Then we will know for certain that they have wasted £3.99.
Ask yourself a simple question, if you had THE CURE for varroa would you be selling it at £3.99. The blurb states the surface is full of "glass bottles". Have you looked at a normal frame down a microscope, it too looks as though it has a highly abrasive surface. Have the bees rubbed it smooth yet? Does varroa attach onto the bees at convenient "scratching" points?

 

[pargyle]

Then we will know for certain that they have wasted £3.99.
Ask yourself a simple question, if you had THE CURE for varroa would you be selling it at £3.99. The blurb states the surface is full of "glass bottles". Have you looked at a normal frame down a microscope, it too looks as though it has a highly abrasive surface. Have the bees rubbed it smooth yet? Does varroa attach onto the bees at convenient "scratching" points?

I don't know but there is some pretty convincing video on the bee gym site that shows bees appearing to scratch themselves on the tapes and certainly I see a pattern of varroa under the section of mesh floor where the bee gym is located.

I note that my bees seem to remove any rough edges in the hive .. sawn timber with fibres sticking up seems to get smoothed .. I thought, perhaps, that the bees nibbled these bits away but perhaps they just wear them down scratching their backs ?

Some people are not in it for the money so the fact that it only costs £3.99 may not be relevant .. and lets face it ... if its a blank CD with some ground limestone stuck to it then the nett cost is probably less than 10p so 400% profit (less postage) is not a bad margin.

 

[midnight sun]

Then we will know for certain that they have wasted £3.99.
The blurb states the surface is full of "glass bottles". Have you looked at a normal frame down a microscope, it too looks as though it has a highly abrasive surface.

So.......£3-99 for a sheet of glass paper then? Not bad profit margin?

 

[pargyle]

Then we will know for certain that they have wasted £3.99.
The blurb states the surface is full of "glass bottles". Have you looked at a normal frame down a microscope, it too looks as though it has a highly abrasive surface.

So.......£3-99 for a sheet of glass paper then? Not bad profit margin?

I don't think it is sand .. I think It's Pumice that has been stuck to a CD but U won't know until someone buys one ! What I can't think is how bees can scratch their back on this .. I can see how the bee gym works ...

 

[midnight sun]

I don't think it is sand .. I think It's Pumice that has been stuck to a CD but U won't know until someone buys one ! What I can't think is how bees can scratch their back on this .. I can see how the bee gym works ...

You don't know what they're dancing to, at night when your in bed!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IlwMnM_n38

 

[Thymallus]

I don't know but there is some pretty convincing video on the bee gym site t

No wonder you have no honey your bees are all too busy working on their pecs...
Please tell me you don't really have a bee gym!

 

[pargyle]

No wonder you have no honey your bees are all too busy working on their pecs...
Please tell me you don't really have a bee gym!

I do.... Stuart is a very interesting chap and I put one in my Long Deep Hive well over a year ago and as I keep saying .. I saw a regular concentration of mites on the inspection floor beneath the point on the mesh floor where the bee gym was located.

When I took my LDH out of use a few weeks ago to modify it the bee gym came out .. one of the 'tapes' had come off the pegs on which it sat and I can only assume that the action of bees using it had dislodged it. It's going back to Stuart to be refurbished and it will then go into one of my Paynes Polys ...

I don't know if it contributes significantly to the low varroa counts I see but as it has no detrimental effect on the bees and I see varroa drop in its vicinity so I can't see any harm in it.

Oddly, Stuart said it would take two or three weeks to see any effect and he was bang on .. it was about a couple of weeks after installing it that I began to notice mite drop in a pattern that was exactly reflecting the shape of the bee gym .. coincidence ? Really odd one if it is ..

Nothing to hate about it ....

 

[Thymallus]

I saw a regular concentration of mites on the inspection floor beneath the point on the mesh floor where the bee gym was located.

Of course, they are working out as well.

 

[pargyle]

Of course, they are working out as well.

Yes ... I have to wash the beeotards and leg warmers on a regular basis .. I like to keep my bees clean and tidy even when they are working up a sweat !

 

[pargyle]

OK .. curiosity got the better of me so I coughed up two days lunch money and bought one !

As I suspected it's a CD with the shiny side covered in what looks very much like cement slurry .. smells a bit like latex floor screed. Apparently you just lean it up somewhere in the hive so that the bees can scratch their backs on it .. which permanently damages any varroa on their backs and they drop off and die. Bloke selling them is a beekeeper and claims that he has been using them and they work.

I'm game for anything so I'm going to cut it in half so that it can stand on the straight edge of the diameter and put both halves into one of my hives and see if there is any effect.

It doesn't look that rough a surface to me ... I think I would have been happier with something more abrasive like ground pumice but we shall see. I'll put them in when I next inspect ....

OK... you can laugh now ....

 

[wessexmario]

I'm thinking that the critical thing is having it at "back scratching distance", so the rough surface needs to be fixed in a space that's just one beespace in height, so when legs are on one surface, their back can be scraped on the other.
Maybe pin against a wall alongside the sidebars of a frame.

 

[theeggman]

Had they coated the CD with "diametous dust" which is used for red mite control in poultry houses it may be more effective. The dust scratches the shell of the red mite when they pass over it and they dry out.

 

[pargyle]

I'm thinking that the critical thing is having it at "back scratching distance", so the rough surface needs to be fixed in a space that's just one beespace in height, so when legs are on one surface, their back can be scraped on the other.
Maybe pin against a wall alongside the sidebars of a frame.

That's a good idea ... I'll drill a small hole in each half and use a drawing pin to secure it to the hive wall .. seller said just to lean it up against a wall but I like this idea more.