Welcome to NY Bee Wellness, your source for maintaining healthy honey bee colonies

an educational nonprofit program to teach beekeepers honey bee disease recognition & to promote honey bee health

honey bee

Varroa Mites Quiz


  1. 1. Untreated colonies containing varroa mites usually die in ____ years or less.


  2. 10. Adult varroa mites piggy back rides on adult bees and as a consequence may be spread from one colony to __________, in that bees often drift from colony to colony.


  3. 2. Unlike the tracheal mite the varroa mites can be seen with the unaided


  4. 11. Only adult ________ (give the sex) varroa mites are found on adult bees.


  5. 3. Like the tracheal mites, varroa mites obtain their nutrient requirements by feeding on the bee's ________(pick 2)__.


  6. 12. Female varroa mites are able to detect cells containing prepupae bees about to be __________


  7. 4. Once the varrroa mite enters the uncapped cell it hides beneath the __________ to avoid detection by adult bees, who otherwise would likely remove it.


  8. 13. The bee larva that the mite is hiding beneath is still being fed a liquid diet by nurse bees, the mite would normally drown in this liquid, HOWEVER the mite turns itself upside down beneath the larva and extends two breathing tubes above the liquid, the tubes are called_______


  9. 5. Once the cell of the prepupa is capped, the mite faces a second danger that of being entangled in the cocoon's silk, spun by the developing bee, to avoid the possibility of becoming entangled in the silk the mite leaves her hiding place and attaches herself to the developing______.


  10. 14. Once the cocoon is completed, the mite starts to fed by piercing a hole between the forming legs of the bee, now in its_______stage.


  11. 6. In that worker bees take 21 days to develop from eggs to adults and drones 24 days, varroa mites have a greater affinity to enter________cells rather than_______cells.


  12. 15. Normally only one daughter is produced in a worker cell BUT in a drone cell up to________can be produce.


  13. 7. Although bees parasitized by varroa do emerge as adults , the nutrients taken from them by the mother mite and her offspring results in a less_______bee. Not only because of the loss of blood but it is also possible that viruses and bacteria are transmitted to the bee while the mite is drawing the bee's blood.


  14. 16. To assay the presence of varroa mites in your colonies one can employ different methods. Check them.


  15. 8. What provides an accurate assessment with minimum harm to the bees


  16. 17. Why are the chemical treatments using Apistan and Checkmite no longer recommended______.


  17. 9. In that the varroa mite prefers drone brood and on drone brood may be more reproductive, in searching for mites, one would be more likely find more numerous mites on drone brood than worker brood. True or false.


Your Score: 0/17