Home▸Entomology & Insect Behaviour▸Tracheal Mites: The Overlooked Respiratory Parasite of Honey Bees

🫁 Tracheal Mites: The Overlooked Respiratory Parasite of Honey Bees

A cutaway of a honey bee's thorax showing Acarapis woodi mites clogging the tracheal breathing tubes, alongside a colony-wide view of infestation spread.

Entomology & Insect Behaviour3DAdvanced60 FPS

A cutaway of a honey bee's thorax reveals Acarapis woodi mites feeding inside the tracheal breathing tubes and slowing the flow of oxygen, while a linked colony view shows how infestation spreads bee to bee.

🔬 What It Demonstrates

Mite load inside a single trachea drives visible tube scarring and a slower, thinner stream of oxygen particles; across the colony, the same infestation level determines what share of bees appear dull and tremble like K-wing symptomatic bees.

🎮 How to Use

Raise colony infestation and mite load to see blockage build up, switch seasons to see how reproduction speed changes, and toggle resistant stock to see hygienic behaviour push the population trend back down.

💡 Did You Know?

Because Acarapis woodi lives hidden inside the trachea, it can't be diagnosed by eye — beekeepers still need to dissect and examine tracheae under a microscope to confirm it.

⚙ Under the hood

A cutaway of a honey bee's thorax showing Acarapis woodi mites clogging the tracheal breathing tubes, alongside a colony-wide view of infestation spread.

beesmitesparasiteshoney-beesthoraxrespirationThree.js

3D · Three.js / WebGL renderer · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install