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Varroa Mite on the back
of a Worker Bee
Effects on individual bees
Single bees infested by Varroa during their development usually survive but suffer a degree of damage depending on how many mites have infested them.
Effects on the colony.
The damage done by the mite depends upon the level of infestation. If the infestation is light then damage will go un-noticed by the beekeeper but as infestation levels increase, deformed bees will be observed. The colony can go from an apparently healthy one bringing in good crops of honey to complete collapse in a matter of weeks because as the adult bees come to the end of their normal lifespan they are not replaced by healthy youngsters. The debilitating effect of Varroa also encourages bee diseases which hasten the colonies demise. Since Varroa cannot be eradicated every beekeeper must practice effective mite control.
Varroa mite
The first honey bee colony losses attributed to Varroa mite were reported in the Far East during the 1960s; the mites have since spread to most areas of the world where honey bees are kept. The destructive power of Varroa is evident from the reported losses of millions of colonies throughout Europe. The mite reached England in 1992 where the first reported sighting was in Devon but it has since spread through the whole of the British Isles.
