Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Canberra, 2601, ACT, Australia.
School of Environment, Science and Engineering, Southern Cross University, Lismore, NSW, 2480, Australia.
Exp Appl Acarol. 2020 Mar;80(3):399-407. doi: 10.1007/s10493-020-00473-7. Epub 2020 Feb 18.
Apiculture in the Pacific island country of Papua New Guinea (PNG) is under significant pressure from emerging parasitic mites, Varroa jacobsoni and Tropilaelaps mercedesae. Although numerous mite control products exist, beekeepers in PNG have limited resources and access to these products and their effectiveness under local conditions is untested. Here we determined the effectiveness of two brood manipulation strategies-queen caging and queen removal-for managing V. jacobsoni and T. mercedesae in comparison to the chemical miticide Bayvarol®. Our results found Bayvarol was the most effective control strategy for V. jacobsoni, maintaining high efficacy (> 90%) over 4 months with significantly reduced levels of V. jacobsoni compared to untreated control hives. In contrast, T. mercedesae were significantly reduced by the brood manipulation strategies over 2 months, but not significantly by Bayvarol compared to the controls. These results highlight that a combination of strategies is likely needed to effectively manage both mite pests in PNG. We discuss how these findings are relevant to informing best practice for honey bee biosecurity and how these strategies can be implemented to improve the effectiveness of mite management for PNG beekeepers.
在太平洋岛国巴布亚新几内亚（PNG），养蜂业正面临新兴寄生螨——瓦螨（Varroa jacobsoni）和梅氏新小绥螨（Tropilaelaps mercedesae）的巨大压力。尽管有许多杀螨剂产品，但巴布亚新几内亚的养蜂人资源有限，无法获得这些产品，且这些产品在当地条件下的效果未经测试。在这里，我们确定了两种育雏操作策略——蜂王笼养和蜂王移除——与化学杀螨剂 Bayvarol®相比，用于管理瓦螨和梅氏新小绥螨的效果。我们的研究结果发现，Bayvarol 是控制瓦螨最有效的策略，在 4 个月内保持了>90%的高功效，与未处理的对照蜂群相比，瓦螨的水平显著降低。相比之下，育雏操作策略在两个月内显著降低了梅氏新小绥螨的数量，但与对照相比，Bayvarol 并没有显著降低其数量。这些结果表明，可能需要结合多种策略来有效管理 PNG 中的这两种螨虫害虫。我们讨论了这些发现如何为蜜蜂生物安全的最佳实践提供信息，以及如何实施这些策略来提高 PNG 养蜂人的杀螨效果。
