Abstract

SANABRIA, Jorge Luis et al. Infestation rates of Varroa destructor in not controlled surviving hives. Rev Salud Anim. [online]. 2015, vol.37, n.2, pp.118-124. ISSN 0253-570X.

Varroosis of honey bee continues being the main sanitary problem of the apiculture worldwide. The chemical control has been the most used method but it may lead to the development of acaricide resistant mite strains, increases of production costs, toxicity for honeybee and man, and contamination of hive products, with consequent difficulties for its commercialization. In order to know the behaviour of the infestation rates by Varroa mite in untreated hives, adult honeybees and fragments of worker and drone brood combs were sampled monthly from a natural selection apiary for 13 months. As controls, adult honeybees from six conventional apiaries were sampled at different post treatment times. The mean infestation rate by Varroa in not treated hives was: adult honeybees = 3.61% (2.10% - 5.56%), worker brood = 4.89% (1.43% - 15.72%) and drone brood = 34.94% (12.30% - 51.27%). The mean infestation rate in adult bees of the control apiaries was 5.36%. In March and April, when drone brood increases, the higher rates of Varroa destructor infestation were observed in both adult bees and brood. After four years without treatment, the surviving hives of the natural selection apiary showed Varroa infestation rates below the threshold of danger and lower than those in the controlled apiaries.

Keywords : Apis mellifera; Varroa destructor; infestation levels.

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