Review of Bee Health

Virginia State pollinator protection plan buzzes along

March 23, 2017

From: Roanoke Times

By Tonia Moxley

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In Virginia, as in other states, honeybee colonies have over the past 20 years been dying at a high rate. Nationally, researchers are still working to narrow down possible causes, and to better understand the combination of factors that may be responsible.

Historically, fewer than 10 percent of the commonwealth’s hives died annually, state apiarist Keith Tignor has said. But since the invasion of two parasitic mites — tracheal mites and Varroa destructor mites — in the 1980s, honeybee colonies have died at much higher rates. Statewide, 46 percent of colonies died in 2015, according to Tignor.

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