Effective biotechnical control of Varroa: applying knowledge on brood cell invasion to trap honey bee parasites in drone brood

摘要

Two methods using trap-combs with drone brood Apis mellifera were designed and tested. In the 1st experiment, effectiveness of the control method varied considerably, from 67% to 96%. However, the observed effectiveness in each separate colony was similar to the prediction based on knowledge of behaviour of Varroa jacobsoni invading brood cells. Effectiveness depended on the number of drone cells that had been available for mite trapping. In the 2nd experiment, the method was adjusted to improve production of trap-combs with drone brood, since this appeared to be crucial for trapping efficiency. The observed effectiveness of 93.4% demonstrated that trap-combs with drone brood can effectively trap mites, thereby offering a non-chemical method of V.jacobsoni control. The use of knowledge on invasion behaviour of mites for evaluating trap-comb methods and modelling V. jacobsoni population dynamics is discussed.