Topic: Another bumble bee covered in mites

[Paulines7]

Back in 2008, I submitted a post about a bumble bee that I had found that was covered in mites and there were suggestions that she was probably near the end of her life.  See:
http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/smf/index.php/topic,45068.0.html

Today, however, a very large bumblebee, undoubtedly a queen, came and settled on some primula that I was about to plant.  She was absolutely covered in mites.  She seemed to be flying around all right but could this be why bees are declining?

[Robert_Brenchley]

Probably not. Most of these mites are pretty well harmless to the bee, and at this time of year there is no other bumblebee in the nest for them to hitch a ride on. The only mite which is really harmful is the varroa mite, an introduced species which doesn't affect bumblebees. Even in this case, it's not the mite itself which does the damage, but the viruses it spreads.

[Jayb]

Interesting post. Similarly, as yesterday was nice and warm, I noticed 3 huge bumblebees on the peach blossom. They were covered in mites too  :o Looked horrible. It must impact on them though as I presume they are feeding off the bees.

[Robert_Brenchley]

Not necessarily. A lot of them feed on pollen or detritus in the nest. Even parasitic mites have been shown to do little or no direct harm to the bee.

[Jayb]

That's good to know,  its brightened my day  :)

[Unwashed]

Very interesting post.  I'll keep an eye out now, as I've never seen mites on bees.

[Palustris]

That  is a relief, all the ones working my Alpine house today had mites on them. Do these mites also go on the mining bees? They were in there too, but a bit fast and small to examine.

[Robert_Brenchley]

As far as I know, all bees have mites.

[:(]

They were talking about this on Home Planet today and said they dont harm the bee and you shouldn't try to take them off. When the bee finds a new nest the mites get off anf live in the bottom of the nest and do the cleaning.