Published in Scientific Papers. Series D. Animal Science, Vol. LXIV, Issue 1
Written by Adrian SICEANU, Eliza CĂUIA, Gabriela-Oana VIȘAN, Dumitru CĂUIA
The varroa mite infestation is a serious cause of honeybee colony loss at a global level. The varroa mite population development in the honeybee colony is the result of its reproduction success and of some favouring factors. Its parasitism model, which rely on capped brood for reproduction, as well as the role as vector of viruses increase the negative impact on honeybee health. Thus, there is clearly a necessity to develop new treatment approaches to interrupt the mite’s life cycle, especially before winter honeybee rearing in order to protect it. Except for the formic acid, the substances used today, which generally treat the whole colony, target only phoretic mites. Using the formic and acetic acids’ rapid vaporization properties, two procedures were developed and tested for the treatment of capped brood. The results show a high effectiveness in the mortality of mites (90-100%) in different experimental variants. The capped brood brushing with volatile organic acids represents a highly effective, cost efficient, organic and minimally invasive procedure. It could be applied any time during the active season to decrease the level of infestation before critical moments.
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