Bee Louse
Krankheiten
The bee louse, Braula coeca, is despite its name not a louse but a wingless fly about one to one and a half millimeters in size.
The bee louse, Braula coeca, is despite its name not a louse but a wingless fly about one to one and a half millimeters in size. It is the only parasite of our honey bee that prefers the queen as its host.
The adult bee louse sits on the bee and scrounges during food exchange: it snatches at the mouthparts whatever the bee is passing on. Its mouthparts are short and purely for sucking; it does not sting the bee, does not reach the hemolymph, and transmits no diseases. The Kirchhain bee institute therefore classifies it as a nuisance rather than a pest. Only with heavy infestation of the queen can her egg-laying become restricted.
The larva does the actual damage. Eggs are laid in summer on the inside of the wax cappings of honey cells, and the larvae then eat tunnels through the comb walls. With heavy infestation, it helps to remove the wax cappings of the honey cells so the bees clear out the larvae.
In Germany, the bee louse has become very rare. It is thought that the products used against the Varroa mite also affect it, similarly to the tracheal mite. It is regularly confused with the Varroa mite. Both are similar in size, but the bee louse is an insect with six legs, while the Varroa mite is a mite with eight legs and a distinctly flatter, shield-shaped body.