Breeding Mite-Biting Bees To Control Varroa
April 11, 2016
From: Bee Culture
by Greg Hunt, J Krispn Given, Jennifer M. Tsuruda, Gladys K. Andino
Introduction.
Despite the general recognition among beekeepers and bee researchers that Varroa mites are the number one risk factor for honey bee colony mortality, a look at the Bee Informed Partnership national surveys tells us that most beekeepers are hobbyists and most of them do nothing to control for Varroa mites in any given year, and those that do not control mites have much higher colony losses (2010-2014). There are some non-chemical practices that beekeepers use that help control mite levels such as introducing a break in the brood cycle by splitting colonies and re-queening, or the use of screened bottom boards. There are also some commonly used mite control practices that research has shown are ineffective, for example the use of comb with small cell sizes (Zhou et al. 2001; Taylor et, al. 2008; Ellis et al. 2009; Berry et al. 2010; Coffey et al. 2010; Seeley and Griffin 2011). One important non-chemical strategy for sustainable beekeeping is use of mite-tolerant honey bee stocks.
Progress in selecting for resistance to Varroa has been slow but there is evidence that the bees have begun their own fight against the mites. Some queen breeders are trying to help bees in this fight by incorporating lines of bees that have been subjected to natural selection by surviving without miticide treatment, such as Russian bees imported to North America by the USDA (Rinderer et al. 2010). Another approach is to select for specific traits that are effective at lowering mite populations. A study in Europe found that colonies with low mite populations had damaged mites falling from the bees (Moosbeckhofer 1992) and other studies have suggested that grooming behavior is important for resisting mite infestation, as it is in the mite’s original host, the Asian honey bee (Peng et al. 1987; Boeking and Spivak 1999; Mondragon et al. 2005). However the benefit of using the proportions of damaged mites as selection criteria has been questioned (Rosenkranz et al. 1997).
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