While several adult flies may live on a queen, usually only one lives on a worker. Braula move rapidly over the body surface, settling on the dorsal surface at the junction of the bee's thorax and abdomen. They remain there until a hunger response causes them to crawl up to the bee's head near its mouthparts. This movement seems to irritate the bee, causing it to regurgitate a drop of nectar. Braula then inserts its mouthparts into those of its benefactor and takes its food.
Bees actively try to remove the lice.
The louse lays its eggs on the cappings of honey storage cells during May through July. After oviposition, the adults die. Upon hatching, the young larvae burrow into the cappings. The larva pupates inside the tunnel after making a line of weakness in the wax to aid in its emergence as an adult. Soon after emergence, about twenty-one days later, the young adult crawls upon a bee.