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  • varroa - phoretic or parasitic

  • Honeybee pests and diseases.
Honeybee pests and diseases.
 #9545  by Chrisbarlow
 03 Dec 2020, 18:04
Since 2019 we've known that varroa don't drink bee blood but eat bee flesh.

With this in mind, should we stop saying varroa are phoretic mites and start saying they are parasitic mites?
 #9546  by Patrick
 03 Dec 2020, 18:33
Bravo Chris. Phoretic is to my understanding a scientific term that specifically describes a relatively passive action of simply hitching a ride. As you say, we now know this was out of ignorance ( albeit sincerely meant at the time obviously) misapplied to varroa and so now falls rather into the category of using technical terms wrongly.

The problem maybe is that in terms of treatments we sort of know what we meant about that stage in the lifecycle when they are outside the comb cell. How should we now refer more accurately to that - is parasitic specific enough to that?
 #9548  by MickBBKA
 04 Dec 2020, 00:25
Chrisbarlow wrote:
03 Dec 2020, 18:04
Since 2019 we've known that varroa don't drink bee blood but eat bee flesh.

With this in mind, should we stop saying varroa are phoretic mites and start saying they are parasitic mites?
I believe they eat the fat bodies in the bees haemolymph not their flesh or blood. But as you correctly suggest I agree with you that they should be classed as parasitic.

Cheers, Mick.
 #9552  by Chrisbarlow
 04 Dec 2020, 09:57
@Patrick
Your right, it does then pose the question how do you refer to the parasite when it's outside the brood cells.