Parasitic Mites; hitching lifts from flowers

[Alvearium]

There are swathes of Himalayan Balsalm on the lower reaches of the Tweed regularly plundered by pollinating insects, mainly bumblebees. The pic attached shows little insects (or are they mites?) sheltering inside. Does anyone know what they are? Gavin, with your scientific expertise can you help? Could they be mites waiting to cling to the next bumblebee?
Alvearium

[gavin]

These little critters are beetles, and as no-one is likely to challenge me if I start stepping beyond my true areas of expertise, I'm tempted to declare that they are members of the genus Meligethes. The usual one is Meligethes aeneus. Look at the clubbed antennae. It competes with honeybees for the goodies in oilseed rape flowers, breeding therein, and afterwards dispersing to other flowers that have suitably tasty pollen.

What with all the rain lately, perhaps they have decided to head for the nearest flowers with a degree of shelter. I would if I was one. They have wings and can make their own way about the countryside, although I need 4 wheels for that (perhaps 2 wheels sometimes).

Gavin

[gavin]

There's a lovely blog (http://cabinetofcuriosities-greenfingers.blogspot.com/2010/07/plague-of-pollen-beetles.html) on these little fellows with some cracking pictures. It is by Phil Gates who used to write a nature diary in the Guardian and possibly still does. I visited him when I first started at SCRI as we shared an interest in field beans.

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[gavin]

I was once standing in a field somewhere in Tayside looking at a plot of potatoes while a fellow from the agricultural college was telling us something Very Important about potato agronomy. Naturally, my mind drifted somewhat and I was interested to note that the yellow A4 sheets we had all been passed by the college fellow were being covered by Meligethes dropping out of the sky and hitting the yellow targets. It was the gentle pitter-patter I noticed first. They can go far these guys. We once fingered them for pollinating some oilseed rape plants set at extreme distance from the nearest fields, but that is another story.

Apparently pyrethroid resistant pollen beetles have been quietly moving west across Europe for some years. This has prompted a change in some parts from the exclusive use of pyrethroids to control them in OSR flowers (we all know and love them for a decade or so of helping keep Varroa under control, made by that nice Bayer company who also make medicines that keep some of us elderly beekeepers going) to an alternative spray to control them based on one of those neonicotinoids, thiacloprid (made by that Evil Empire company Bayer who bribe corrupt UK beekeeping organisations, deliberately pollute the countryside with their poisons, and obfuscate on their cunning plans to starve the world by removing the pollinators that give us every third mouthful we eat, in three years, so Einstein said).

The Bayer Leaflet (http://www.bayercropscience.co.uk/docushare/Other/Biscaya_Pollen_Beetle_In-season_Update_2008_APPROVED.pdf) on this new OSR neonicotinoid spray.

For those who don't know me well enough, I'm paraphrasing some of the stuff peddled by nonsense merchants out there to perplex and confuse beekeepers. Am I concerned about a new neonicotinoid spray being used on oilseed rape as it comes into flower? Slightly. Is it likely to be any more toxic than the pyrethroids farmers have already been putting on OSR and beekeepers directly on their bees? Don't think so.

G.

[Alvearium]

I seem to have an uncanny knack of starting something off with Gavin, but honestly on this occasion it was entirely unpremeditated! I am not that devious. Anyway I have the answer and more!
Alvearium

[gavin]

I was just getting some informative blether out of my system before I go quiet for a while!

[Jon]

made by that nice Bayer company who also make medicines that keep some of us elderly beekeepers going) to an alternative spray to control them based on one of those neonicotinoids, thiacloprid (made by that Evil Empire company Bayer who bribe corrupt UK beekeeping organisations, deliberately pollute the countryside with their poisons, and obfuscate on their cunning plans to starve the world by removing the pollinators that give us every third mouthful we eat, in three years, so Einstein said).

Einstein? I thought it was a guy called Martin!

I was over at Mervyn's yesterday evening and he has 3 colonies affected with what looked like some kind of poisoning.
The undertaker bees were dumping bees outside. The worst affected colony had several hundred dead bees dumped within a yard of the entrance.

The cause could be anything.
Could be that someone poisoned a feral colony which was then robbed out.

The bees died in the hive and were then dumped, rather than dying in the field, although there is no way of knowing if significant numbers did not make it back without checking if there is any loss of colony strength.

What crops and what chemicals are likely to be in use at this time of year.
Do apple trees get a spray in July?

An incident like this could be caused by a single gardener.


I was just getting some informative blether out of my system before I go quiet for a while!
Or the ongoing scrabble to make the ultimate futile gesture.

I am going out to spray some Imidicloprid. I may be gone for some time.

[gavin]

How dare you call my gestures futile!

So I've no idea what sprays might be going on apples in July, but note that the other approved use for thiacloprid in the UK is for orchard fruits. However I doubt very much that bees are attracted to apple trees in July. There is always the possibility of collateral damage should the bees be flying through areas being sprayed with insecticides - commercial orchards or cereal fields perhaps. Is that what Mervyn thinks (Mervyn being a man who knows such things)?

Can you discount disease, possibly virus, maybe even being brought in by various itinerant and Apidea-wielding beekeepers?!

[Jon]

We discussed acarine for a bit but there were no crawlers. The bees outside were already stone dead.
He took a sample to send off to the lab in Newforge.
A month ago I collected a very small cast swarm from the garden of a neighbour who as it turned out worked in the aforementioned lab. He said they routinely tested dead things such as honeybees for traces of pesticides.

My bees appear to be very healthy and I have been filling nearly all the Apideas so I doubt if there is a problem there.
No kidding, I have filled about 40 in the last month and only a dozen of them have been mine.