Werewolves, not vampires

[Mellifera Crofter]

Ewan?


https://youtu.be/Fyfyj-2O47Q

[Mellifera Crofter]

Am I the only person who find it interesting that mites prefer fat bodies rather than haemolymph?

And how does that fit in with what you feed your pet mites in your lab, Ewan?

Kitta

[fatshark]

And ... is this published? I've heard of it being talked about for a few months now, but am sufficiently cynical to know that some PhD. studies never see the light of day in the peer reviewed literature.

[Mellifera Crofter]

I don't know, FS! I thought he's still working on it. I like the idea of presenting your area of study in three minutes, and making it understandable within that time.

[emcampbell]

Am I the only person who find it interesting that mites prefer fat bodies rather than haemolymph?

And how does that fit in with what you feed your pet mites in your lab, Ewan?

Kitta

A few things don't chime with what we see in our lab so I am not sure it’s as clear cut about them feeding on fat body. We dont' feed it to them and they do fine. The other thing is that when we have mites on bee brood they often have feeding sites not related to fat body and they also do fine.

A link to his work says “Since many of the existing systemic pesticides designed to combat the mite were formulated assuming the mites fed on the hemolymph, this discovery explains why these never succeeded as a control measure.” Which is misleading as the chemicals clearly do work and they were not formulated specifically for haemolymph ! They were first used because they kill mites and ticks in other systems !

In fact most of them kill by contact with the mite not through ingestion of haemolymph. Resistance to pyrethroids, like apistan, builds up in a timeframe considered normal in a pest / pesticide resistance model so not sure if this fat body thing is totally the norm. Time will tell I guess. He's an engaging speaker certainly.

[Mellifera Crofter]

Thanks Ewan. That's interesting. I'm amazed that somebody hasn't pointed out some of those glaring mistakes you've mentioned - particularly the pesticide thing.
Kitta