Bees are the major pollinators in natural ecosystems and agricultural production of several crops used for human consumption. However, they exposed to multiple stressors that causing a serious decline their population. We highlight one among them, Varroa destructor mite (Varroa) causes severe impacts on health honey bee colonies, transmitting variety viruses can affect survival ability individu...

Honeybee disappearance is one of the major environmental and economic challenges this century has to face. The ecto-parasitic mite Varroa destructor represents one of the main causes of the worldwide beehive losses. Although halting mite transmission among beehives is of primary importance to save honeybee colonies from further decline, the natural route used by mites to abandon a collapsing co...

A strain of the fungus Beauveria bassiana (Balsamo) Vuillemin (Deuteromycota: Hyphomycetes) isolated from varroa mites, Varroa destructor Anderson & Trueman (Acari: Varroidae), was used to treat honey bees, Apis mellifera L. (Hymenoptera: Apidae), against varroa mites in southern France. Fungal treatment caused a significant increase in the percentage of infected varroa mites compared with cont...

Abstract Suppressed mite reproduction (SMR) is an important trait for the selection of Varroa resistant honey bee colonies. It has repeatedly been assumed that SMR effect varroa sensitive hygiene (VSH) when hygienic bees preferably remove those brood cells where reproduced. We here compare VSH behaviour toward artificial infested with a mite. By infesting half directly after cell capping and ot...

The mite Varroa destructor is the main pest causing damage to apiculture worldwide. In Brazil and other parts of the world, where bees of African origin and their hybrids predominate, the bees can survive these mites without treatment. Studies have shown a correlation between the various genotypes of the mite and its fertility in different geographical regions. Information about mite genotype c...

In Europe and North America honey bees cannot be kept without chemical treatments against Varroa destructor. Nevertheless, in Brazil an isolated population of Italian honey bees has been kept on an island since 1984 without treatment against this mite. The infestation rates in these colonies have decreased over the years. We looked for possible varroa-tolerance factors in six Italian honey bee ...

BACKGROUND The aim of our current study was to investigate the possible occurence of pyrethroid (taufluvalinate) resistant Varroa mites infestations in 24 randomly chosen apiaries of Warmia-Mazury province of northeast Poland. METHODS The methodology used for the analysis of resistant Varroa strains strictly followed the protocol described by Milani. RESULTS We identified 3 apiaries that we...

The dynamics of viruses are critical to our understanding of disease pathogenesis. Using honey bee Deformed wing virus (DWV) as a model, we conducted field and laboratory studies to investigate the roles of abiotic and biotic stress factors as well as host health conditions in dynamics of virus replication in honey bees. The results showed that temperature decline could lead to not only signifi...

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...

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...