Juliana Rangel and David R Tarpy
Honey bees (Apis mellifera) contribute an estimated $200 billion annually to the global economy, primarily through crop pollination. Despite their importance, the number of managed honey bee colonies continues to decline. Recent surveys have shown that colony losses are attributed in great part to problems associated with the ectoparasitic mite Varroa destructor, and with issues related to poor queen quality (particularly premature queen replacement), which often result in decreased colony productivity and increased risk of mortality. We aimed to investigate how sublethal exposure to beekeeper-applied miticides affects honey bees at both the individual (queen) and colony levels. We did so by comparing the growth (comb built, brood produced, food stored, and worker population), queen supersedure rates, and winter survival probabilities of colonies that were headed by queens that were raised in either miticide-laden or miticide-free beeswax cups then housed in hives that were either treated with miticides or left untreated. Contrary to our prediction, we found that treated colonies headed by queens raised in miticide-laden beeswax built significantly more worker and drone comb, and stored more food, than any other colony treatment. We did not, however, observe any other significant effect of colony treatment on the amount of brood production, worker population size, queen supersedure rate, or colony winter survival. Thus, we failed to observe a direct negative effect of miticide exposure at the colony level. More studies are needed to further test the potentially detrimental synergistic effects of in-hive miticides on honey bee health at the colony level.
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