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Philmycock

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deformed_wing_virus

 

A bit of background:

 

We have a bumblebee hive within 2 yards of our back door. It's absolutely fascinating watching them coming and going, but over the last couple of weeks I have noticed at least 2 or 3 bumblebees per day crawling over the flowers, not flying. Upon closer inspection they all have badly deformed wings and cannot fly, so I did a bit of digging on the internet (hence the above link). It transpires that the nest is infected with the so-called Deformed Wing Virus - caused by an infestation of Apis Mellifera, the Varroa mite.

 

Bees infected with DWV are immediately expelled from the nest, and find their way into my rockery which is a mass of purple flowers at the moment. They will normally die within 48 hours, but they only last about half an hour in our garden because a blackbird has taken a fancy to them.

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