b a ckground: the varroa destructor mite is considered as a major pest of honey bees apis mellifera . the rapid spread of varroa mites among bee colonies may be due to several factors, including drifting of infested bees, movement of bee swarms, and robbing of weakened colonies. disease spread and predisposing the infested bees to other diseases lead to high economic losses in beekeeping indust...

The combination of the concentration of formic acid and the duration of fumigation (CT product) during indoor treatments of honey bee, Apis mellifera L., colonies to control the varroa mite, Varroa destructor Anderson & Trueman, determines the efficacy of the treatment. Because high concentrations can cause queen mortality, we hypothesized that a high CT product given as a low concentration ove...

Whereas in several parts of the world varroa is the major pest affecting apiculture, in others the parasite is unknown to many beekeepers because its damage to bees is minor. The impact of the mite Varroa destructor is related to the climatic conditions and the races of Apis mellifera bees in each region where the pest exists. In the present study, the current level of infestation by the mite w...

Two lines of honey bees (Apis mellifera ligustica) were selectively propagated by instrumental insemination using the population growth of the Varroa mite as a criteria. Different infestation rates are at least partially genetic since selection produced significant bi-directional differences between lines over a period of three subsequent generations. There was no correlation between several be...

We present a simple SIR-Ross-MacDonald like model of the infestation of a honeybee (Apis mellifera) colony by the Acute Bee Paralysis Virus (ABPV), which is transmitted by parasitic varroa mites (Varroa destructor) as vector. This is a four dimensional system of nonlinear ordinary differential equations for the dependent variables healthy and virus infected bees, number of mites in the colony o...

Honeybees have evolved a social immunity consisting of the cooperation of individuals to decrease disease in the hive. We identified a set of genes involved in this social immunity by analysing the brain transcriptome of highly varroa-hygienic bees, who efficiently detect and remove brood infected with the Varroa destructor mite. The function of these candidate genes does not seem to support a ...

Varroa destructor, the introduced parasite of European honey bees associated with massive colony deaths, spreads readily through populations of honey bee colonies, both managed colonies living crowded together in apiaries and wild colonies living widely dispersed in natural settings. Mites are hypothesized to spread between most managed colonies via phoretically riding forager bees when they en...

Four essential oils in two concentrations (50 and 100%) of thyme, Thymus vulgaris; Cinnamon, Cinnamomum zeylanicum; Lemon grass, Cymbopagon flexuosus; Anise, Pimpinella anisum and formic acid (65%) were used against varroa mite, Varroa destructor infesting honey bee colonies. Results show that, formic acid and the highest concentration (100%) of tested essential oils caused effective control of...

Four essential oils of Thyme (Thymus linearis), Lemon grass (Cymbopogon citratus), Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis), Mint (Mentha longifolia) and Formic Acid (65%) used at three concentrations (25, 50 and 100%) against Varroa destructor damaging honey bee Apis mellifera colonies in Honeybee Research Institute, National Agricultural Research Centre, Islamabad, Pakistan. The percentage of infest...