Mites- The Tiny Killers to Push Honeybee Colonies into Collapse and Integrated Pest Management

Abstract

This article is designed to give an overview of damage to honey bee’s colony by parasitic mites,
integrated pest management, available treatments and information on further pest control.
Parasitic mites have caused massive economic losses and expenses for beekeepers and their
destructive power is evident from the huge number of colonies lost since the past few decades.
Parasitic mites present in most colonies in certain localities, if left untreated, these usually cause
the colony to collapse. Parasitic can feed and survive on both adult bees and their brood, and
feed on the host’s haemolymph (blood) through punctures made in the body wall with their sharp
mouthparts. Mites transmit pathogens like viruses and bacteria, and without human intervention,
infestation with mites means certain death of honey bees sooner or later. The signs of infestation
may not be obvious until colonies are heavily infested, however, there are several methods that
can be used to detect the mites and estimate their infestations at a much earlier stage. These
include counting dead mites that collect on the hive floor and counting mites inside sealed brood
cells. This is a disaster not just for beekeepers, but also to farmers in most countries where honey
bees are the main pollinators of crops such as apples, oilseed rape and almonds. Mites remained
the number one management problem for beekeepers and scientists alike, and management of
parasites has now become a routine part of bee husbandry. The onset of resistance to the
treatments available and the potential impact of secondary infections may make controlling of
mite more difficult in the future, and it will continue to be a serious threat to the long-term
sustainability and prosperity of apiculture as well as environment. Mites control methods can be
divided into two groups, management methods (biotechnical methods) and chemical controls
(varroacides). There are a few effective and approved miticides (chemicals that kill mites) to
immediately treat mites with one of these treatments by carefully following the directions on the
package. Because mites can develop a resistance to these medications, it is prudent to alternate
between two or more of these from one season to the next. In practice, the best controls result
from using a combination of methods at different times of the year depending on the level of
infestation is Integrated Pest Management or ‘IPM, as reliance on a single approach is not a long
term solution.