Dwight Wells returns to provide an update on feral honey bee mite-chewing behaviors. He will bring several digital microscopes to the meeting to check mites SIBA members have collected from screen bottom board slides. So bring in some dead mites!

Mites can be collected from feral swarm colonies and other non-feral colonies for comparison of chewing percentages.

Propagating the best genetics into our local bee population is the best thing we can do in our battle against varroa. Hygienic bees sense varroa and actively groom the mites of each other, and even go as far as biting them. One bite causes a wound that the mite can't recover from and it will bleed to death.

We always like hearing from Dwight and the Purdue "ankle-biters."