Removal of Drone Brood From Apis mellifera (Hymenoptera: Apidae) Colonies to Control Varroa destructor (Acari: Varroidae) and Retain Adult Drones

2009 ◽  
Vol 102 (6) ◽  
pp. 2033-2040 ◽  
Author(s):  
Holly A. Wantuch ◽  
David R. Tarpy
2002 ◽  
Vol 134 (3) ◽  
pp. 381-390 ◽  
Author(s):  
M.T. Santillán-Galicia ◽  
G. Otero-Colina ◽  
C. Romero-Vera ◽  
J. Cibrián-Tovar

AbstractVarroa destructor Anderson and Trueman females were placed in contact with queen, worker, and drone brood cells of Apis mellifera L. that were soon to be sealed. In a non-choice test, V. destructor adult females were introduced into a comb containing either queen or worker brood cells; 0.62 and 18.28% of the mites entered the queen and worker brood cells, respectively. Only 1 of the 11 mites that entered queen brood cells oviposited, laying a single egg. In another test, brood cells were combined in the same comb in a 1:25:3 queen:worker:drone ratio. The percentages of egg-laying mites in queen, worker, and drone brood cells were 16.66, 61.86, and 79.06%, respectively. When queen, worker, and drone brood cells were combined in equal proportions (33.3:33.3:33.3), percent infestation was significantly different among queen (3.25%), worker (49.12%), and drone (90.07%) brood. Multiple infestation was found in drone brood cells but not in others. Also, mites were inoculated into sealed queen cells. These cells contained either one or two mites (either at the egg or protonymph stage). Conversely, in a simultaneous test with worker brood cells, the offspring per foundress mite included a mean of three individuals (either at the egg, protonymph, or deutonymph stage). It is concluded that V. destructor can infest queen, worker, and drone brood cells, but drone brood cells are preferred; in addition, queen brood cells do not provide an optimal environment for reproduction because it causes a delay in mite oviposition and (or) progeny development.


Author(s):  
P. Herren ◽  
L. Fieseler ◽  
D. Ambuehl ◽  
J. Grunder

Drone brood of Apis mellifera is often removed from the beehive to control the honeybee parasite Varroa destructor. Instead of discarding the drone brood, it could rather be used as a new food source for human nutrition. However, studies on microbiological hazards caused by edible insects are rare, especially in the case of drone brood. In this survey, microbial total viable cell counts and the most common foodborne bacteria were assessed in raw drone brood. Samples were taken from 24 beehives from four apiaries in Switzerland. The drone brood combs were harvested either by the beekeepers with their personal equipment or by the researchers with sterile equipment. No difference in the total viable cell counts was found between these two methods. All samples were free of Salmonella. Viable counts of Bacillus cereus, coagulase-positive staphylococci, Enterobacteriaceae and Escherichia coli were all below the detection limits of the recommended ISO reference methods. However, Listeria monocytogenes was detected in eight samples (all <10 cfu/g), which has not been reported in edible insects until now.


2016 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 156-171
Author(s):  
А.В. СПРЫГИН ◽  
◽  
Ю.Ю. БАБИН ◽  
Е.М. ХАНБЕКОВА ◽  
Л.Е. РУБЦОВА ◽  
...  

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 778-788
Author(s):  
William De Jesús May-Itzá ◽  
Luis Abdelmir Abdelmir Medina Medina

Se evaluó la eficacia del humo de los frutos secos de Guazuma ulmifolia y los vapores de timol en el control del ácaro Varroa destructor infestando colonias de abejas africanizadas (Apis mellifera) de Yucatán. Se utilizaron tres tratamientos: Grupo 1 (G1), las colonias de abejas recibieron 5 a 8 bocanadas de humo de los frutos secos de G. ulmifolia dos veces por semana, durante un período de tres semanas; Grupo 2 (G2), las colonias recibieron 4-8 g de cristales de timol con tres aplicaciones cada siete días, y Grupo 3 (G3 o grupo control) las colonias no recibieron ningún tratamiento durante las tres semanas del experimento. Se colectaron 200 a 300 abejas adultas de cada colonia previo a la aplicación de los tratamientos (día 0) y a los 7, 14 y 21 días después de las aplicaciones, con la finalidad de determinar los niveles de infestación y eficacia de los tratamientos. Los resultados indican que los niveles de infestación de V. destructor en las abejas adultas disminuyeron al final del experimento (21 días) y fueron estadísticamente diferentes para los tres tratamientos, siendo menor para G2. La eficacia al final de los tratamientos fue de 41 y 69 %, para G1 y G2, respectivamente. Estos resultados corroboran que la aplicación de cristales de timol es una alternativa para el control del ácaro V. destructor en Yucatán, y que la aplicación del humo de los frutos secos de G. ulmifolia reduce los niveles de infestación de este parásito en comparación con las colonias que no recibieron ningún tipo de tratamiento (G3).


Insects ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 216
Author(s):  
Matthieu Guichard ◽  
Benoît Droz ◽  
Evert W. Brascamp ◽  
Adrien von Virag ◽  
Markus Neuditschko ◽  
...  

For the development of novel selection traits in honey bees, applicability under field conditions is crucial. We thus evaluated two novel traits intended to provide resistance against the ectoparasitic mite Varroa destructor and to allow for their straightforward implementation in honey bee selection. These traits are new field estimates of already-described colony traits: brood recapping rate (‘Recapping’) and solidness (‘Solidness’). ‘Recapping’ refers to a specific worker characteristic wherein they reseal a capped and partly opened cell containing a pupa, whilst ‘Solidness’ assesses the percentage of capped brood in a predefined area. According to the literature and beekeepers’ experiences, a higher recapping rate and higher solidness could be related to resistance to V. destructor. During a four-year field trial in Switzerland, the two resistance traits were assessed in a total of 121 colonies of Apis mellifera mellifera. We estimated the repeatability and the heritability of the two traits and determined their phenotypic correlations with commonly applied selection traits, including other putative resistance traits. Both traits showed low repeatability between different measurements within each year. ‘Recapping’ had a low heritability (h2 = 0.04 to 0.05, depending on the selected model) and a negative phenotypic correlation to non-removal of pin-killed brood (r = −0.23). The heritability of ‘Solidness’ was moderate (h2 = 0.24 to 0.25) and did not significantly correlate with resistance traits. The two traits did not show an association with V. destructor infestation levels. Further research is needed to confirm the results, as only a small number of colonies was evaluated.


BMC Genomics ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
R Scott Cornman ◽  
Michael C Schatz ◽  
J Spencer Johnston ◽  
Yan-Ping Chen ◽  
Jeff Pettis ◽  
...  

Apidologie ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-65 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pedro Duay ◽  
David De Jong ◽  
Wolf Engels

2018 ◽  
pp. 83-87
Author(s):  
Marianna Takács ◽  
János Oláh

An apiary trial was conducted in 2016 August to October in Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg County, Nyírmada to evaluate the influence of queen’s age on the Varroa destructor-burden in the treatment colonies. Sixty colonies of bees belonging to the subspecies Apis mellifera carnica pannonica in Hunor loading hives (with 10 frames in the brood chamber/deep super) were used. The colonies were treated with amitraz and the organophosphate pesticide coumaphos active ingredients. The amitraz treatment includes 6 weeks. The coumaphos treatment with Destructor 3.2% can be used for both diagnosis and treatment of Varroasis. For diagnosis, one treatment is sufficient. For control, two treatments at an interval of seven days are required. The colonies were grouped by the age of the queen: 20 colonies with one-year-old, 20 colonies with two-year-old and 20 colonies with three-year-old queen. The mite mortality of different groups was compared. The number of fallen mites was counted at the white bottom boards. The examination of spring growth of honey bee colonies has become necessary due to the judgement of efficiency of closing treatment. The data was recorded seven times between 16th March 2017 and 19th May 2017. Data on fallen mites were subjected to one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Post-Hoc Tukey-test. Statistical analysis was performed using the software of IBM SPSS (version 21.). During the first two weeks after treatments, the number of fallen mites was significantly higher in the older queen’s colonies (Year 2014). The total mite mortality after amitraz treatment in the younger queen’s colonies was lower (P<0.05) compared to the three-year-old queen’s colonies. According to Takács and Oláh (2016) although the mitemortality tendency, after the coumaphos (closing) treatment in colonies which have Year 2014 queen showed the highest rate, considering the mite-burden the colonies belongs to the average infected category. The colonial maintenance ability of three-year-old queen cannot be judged based on the influencing effect on the mite-burden. The importance of the replacement of the queen was judged by the combined effect of several factors. During the spring-growth study (16th March–19th May) was experienced in the three-year-old queen’s colonies the number of brood frames significantly lower compared to the one- and two-year-old queen’s colonies. In the study of 17th April and 19th May each of the three queen-year-groups were varied. Therefore in the beekeeping season at different times were determined the colonial maintenance ability of queens by more factors: efficiency of closing treatment in early spring, the spring-growth of bee colonies, the time of population shift (in current study, this time was identical in each queen-year), honey production (from black locust).


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