As many of you have read, there is "new" pest bothering the honey bee- the
Phorid fly. I thought I should check to see if my bees were infested. I found a site,
ZomBee Watch, which has a map of reported infested hives. Since there was one reported in Soquel, I figured my girls must also have been
parasitized.
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I didn't read the tutorial on the ZomBee site before I did my set-up, but just did it a simple way. I hung my work light, with a
florescent bulb, in front of the hives on a length of pipe. When it was dark, I turned on the light. One hour later, I went out and found 3 bees climbing around the light. I put them, as well as a dead be from the walk below, into the jar I use for the sugar shake test.
Today, 7 days later, here's what I saw when I looked into the jar:
Those 3 brownish ovals at the top edge of the bottom are pupae.
There was a fourth, lighter pupa on the side of the jar.
I had been looking into the jar daily and had not seen the
larva.
I examined the bees carefully and was unable to find the hole through which the pupae had exited.
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The pupae out of the jar |
I transferred the pupae into a plastic vial and will wait until they hatch.
I submitted a report to ZomBee but it won't be complete until I report on the flies hatching.
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