Mites. More of. Devestation. Mayhem. Damn them!

This photo doesn't even start to tell the tale of how many mites I've seen in the last few days. I've been pulling apart brood comb- and the mites have been pouring out. It's March. The first few days of Spring. And there are hundreds- even thousands- already. I can't say that it;s different than other years in this way- because maybe I am looking more- but I don't think so.

I set the brood comb up on a digitial microscope,and spent a half day watching the mites scamper about. They are cute, like crabs are cute. Hairy crabs, with no emotion. I am guessing. Maybe they do- like Sea Monkeys.

What I saw- that I did not know- and i have looked lots of times before- is that they are thin. Like a thin dish with legs. And why? For one, they can stack on top of each other- and I saw this lots- two mites meet, battle around, and one mite gets on top of the other, and rides her. This isn't sexual- it's more like a Smart Car- just a way to get around. Because mites- like bees- have this weird sexualitu where men don't matter much. Man mites are hatched by their mom, mate with their sisters, and die at the bottom of a bee cell. No real life, no going forth and experiencing the world- and pretty much just dying tiny, and forgotten. Sisters, move out, and propogate. I don't really get how this promotes evolution- where the competition happens- but I guess it does.

But I don't think that;s the main reason they are so thin- like wafers. Sure, they stack up like plates, and I saw three scooting about stacked up, but the main thing I think (I am NOT an internet scientist and only have a BA in art!)- is that when you put a fat, pulsating, white grub in a cell of wax, with barely enough room between the grub and cell wall..and you want to slip about, you have to be thin. And dammit- they are. I will post video. They slip about. They have the run of the place (a capped cell). THEY ARE DISGUSTING.

Like Vampire Bats. Preying on the sleeping, vulnerable, Innocents. If you like Vampire Bats, or Vampires- well, you will disagree- and maybe sympathize with these creatures. I don't. Though I did, sort of, at first.

What I first liked about them is that they look like Horseshoe Crabs. Which are the coolest, most primitive, creatures ever. Or regular crabs. Anyways- simple- an exoskeleton and something to make it move. And something to take it down through 4 billion years of evolution- and remain the same as when it scoured the sands in Devonian times. (I am in  a bar- I made that up).

The bee is furry. Sure, it stings. But furry, and has eyes. Sure, big complicated ones. But the mite is like this automaton plate with legs and a sucker and transmitter of a ton of horrible viruses- and sheesh- I spent an hour or two looking at the voluminous web literature on it- and it is amazing- from like Vietnam or something- and jumped ship- and here we are. It arrived in the 1980s- I was there!- and now its like spilling out on my table under a microscope - up in this far NW corner of the continent.

There's way more to tell- and above all- there is a natural predator- the psuedopod something- Book Scorpion- sheesh! I've seen it in my books! And so it goes.