Evaluation of Two Commonly Used Field Tests to Assess Varroa destructor Infestation on Honey Bee (Apis mellifera) Colonies
Source abstract
Abstract
Assessment of colony infestation by Varroa destructor is a crucial part of the Integrated Pest Management (IPM) applied to beekeeping. Natural mite fall, quantified by counting the mites on sticky sheets, is considered a reference method to estimate varroa infestation level in honey bee colonies. However, in recent years, alternative methods that can be used in field conditions have been investigated. In this paper, we report the results of the evaluation of two different methods to estimate the levels of varroa infestation. The experiment involved 151 honey bee colonies in nine apiaries of four countries (Algeria, Croatia, Italy, Poland). After the main honey flow, we compared the 10-day natural mite fall and the powdered sugar roll methods with the varroa population in each colony. According to our results, the powdered sugar roll method could be suggested to beekeepers as a suitable IPM tool for varroa control, while natural mite fall represents a more accurate method that could be adopted for selection/research purposes.
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Research context
OpenAlex topics: Insect and Pesticide Research · Plant and animal studies · Insect and Arachnid Ecology and Behavior
SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.
Affiliations
Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale del Lazio e della Toscana “M. Aleandri”, Via Appia Nuova 1411, 00178 Rome, Italy
Laboratory for Honeybee Diseases–APISlab, Department for Biology and Pathology of Fish and Bees, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine University of Zagreb, Heinzelova 55, 10 000 Zagreb, Croatia
CREA Research Centre for Agriculture and Environment, Via di Saliceto 80, 40128 Bologna, Italy
Research Institute of Horticulture, Apiculture Division, Kazimierska 2A, 24-100 Puławy, Poland
Department of Poultry Science and Apiculture, Faculty of Animal Bioengineering, University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, Słoneczna 48, 10-957 Olsztyn, Poland
Département d’Agronomie, Faculté des Sciences, Laboratoire de Bioinformatique, Microbiologie Appliquée et Biomolécules, Université M’Hamed Bougara de Boumerdès, Avenue de l’indépendance, Boumerdès 35 000, Algeria
Centro de Estudios Apícola (CEAPIMAYOR), Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Mayor, Camino La Pirámide, Santiago 5750, Chile
Agricultural Institute of Slovenia, Hacquetova ulica 17, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
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