Varroa mites were originally found in the eastern honey bee, native to Asia. In the late 19th or early 20th century western honey bees were introduced to Asia, and the mite moved on to them. This started a pandemic in bee populations worldwide.
Varroa is not the only danger to bees. Researchers have found cocktails of up to twenty-five different chemical pesticides in bees.
Neonicotinoids – chemically similar to nicotine which is itself a deadly poison – are pesticides that disorientates bees even in sub-lethal doses and are a leading cause of colony collapse disorder.
All that said, a paper in the journal of the Royal Society reports on the rates and severity of deformed wing virus (passed on by the varroa mite) in wild honey bees from a forest outside Ithaca, New York. It has been found to be less compared to bees from managed apiaries in New York and Pennsylvania.
The infection rates were similar in both locations. What differed was the consequence of infection.
Comment
The report is good news, but bees in a forest are away from areas where pesticides are sprayed. More needs to be known about the interaction between bees sprayed with insecticides and their ability to overcome and adapt to mite infestation.
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