• Previous Article
• Next Article

Research Article

The effectiveness of several compounds against Varroa destructor - preliminary research in Podlaskie Province

Marcin Andrzej Kruszewski , Monika Naumowicz

Institute of Chemistry, University of Bialystok, Ciolkowskiego 1K, 15-245 Bialystok, Poland

1. Acta Sci. Pol. Zootechnica, 17(1), 2018, 23‒30
2. DOI: 10.21005/asp.2018.17.1.04

Abstract. Bees are natural pollinators, which are able to pollinate most flowers in the world. The serious problem of bee population is an external parasite mite Varroa destructor that causes many viral and bacterial diseases of bees like American foulbrood, European foulbrood or black queen cell virus. It is very important to find a safe and effective treatment against Varroa destructor. There are several methods to fight the parasite, one often used is to remove capped drone brood. Another method is to use various chemical compounds. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of five commonly applied commercial products: flumethrin, coumaphos, amitraz, formic acid and thymol. According to the obtained results, the effectiveness of these compounds was about 90%, 82%, 91%, 57% and 56%, respectively. Fumigation with amitraz turned out to be the quickest and the most effective method to fight against Varroa. All treatment were carried out in private apiaries located in north-eastern Poland, in Podlaskie Voivodeship. Every chemical compound was tested on six bee colonies.

Keywords: Varroa destructor, honeybee, flumethrin, coumaphos, amitraz, formic acid, thymol