I student asked me another day. What's the worst thing that could happen to honeybees if I have to pick one thing
This is my choice
Welcome to inside the hive.TV the show that takes you into the world of bees
I'm your host Humberto Boncristiani and before we talk about the worst thing that could happen to honeybees
Let's first talk about the terrible things that are already happening right now
The European honey bee apis mellifera
Yes
This one the same one that give you honey and more importantly one third of the food that you eat throughout
pollination are not in good shape right now as
You probably heard from the news. They're facing many different problems colony collapse disorder
viruses bad nutrition
Pesticides a microsporidium called nosema ceranae and so on and on from all of those problems
Without a doubt I mite called Varroa
Destructor is the main contributor for the famous honeybee decline that you probably know from the news
Varroa destructor is considered the biggest problem in beekeeping worthwhile today and
Since its introduction in 87 in United States
several thousands of hives have died because of that if you're new to bees or
Beekeeping imagine yourself trying to work every day having an animal the size of a small dog attached to your neck sucking your blood
24/7 or even worse
Imagine two, three, four of them at the same time
But what makes them so dangerous is not only that but especially because they are vectors of
Deadly viruses, if Varroa is not treated for sure it's gonna kill a hive in about a year there
Globally spread with only a few regions in the world claiming to be Varroa-free so to answer my student question
What is the worst thing that could happen to honeybees today?
What could be worse than a bloodsucker that transmit viruses?
on the top of so many other terrible things that are already happening,
how about, another bloodsucker, but this on steroids. Yes, that's right
What if I tell you that in Asia the region in the world with the biggest
Concentrations of hives Varroa destructor is not the main concern
Not because we're always less dangerous there or the bees are different
The fact is they have another bloodsucker much worse than Varroa to be worried about
Its name Tropilaelaps. Please remember this name Tropilaelaps
And the global spread of this little devil in my opinion would be the worst thing that could happen to honeybees today
The biology of Tropilaelaps is very similar to Varroa, and I will not get into the details here
They're not new they're endemic from South Asia, and beekeepers are dealing with them for hundreds of years
What makes them so dangerous is the fact that they reproduce faster than Varroa in average
They have the double amount of offspring from a single adult female
So they can cause damage much faster and even overcome varroa population in a co-infection
To identify them from Varroa is easy the rule of thumb will be that Varroa is wider than it's long and move
It's very slowly on the other hand Tropilaelaps is longer than wide and move pretty fast
But you might be asking yourself if they're so powerful why they're not the biggest problem on beekeeping today
The reason why scientists believe they didn't dominate the world yet is pretty simple as far as we know
Tropilaelaps do not feed on adult bees like varroa
Meaning that they need a constant supply of bee brood to feed on to survive
Experiments have shown that they can only survive for around 72 hours without brood
Meaning that in any event where there is a break on the brood cycle Tropilaelaps will die
in an event like
Swarming when the hive splits to form a new one a break on the brood cycle happens because the new cluster of bees
Only adult bees, needs some time to find a home food
Build a new comb before the new queen to be able to lay eggs again and produce new brood
An event that takes more than 72 hours
consequently Tropilaelaps will die
Another event that forces bees to get breaking a brood cycle is cold weathers
Honeybee behaves differently in strong winters. They evolved to live longer than normal
They keep themself clustered to keep themselves warm
Also the Queen stops to lay eggs to save resources
Which caused the break in a brood cycle remember no brood means no food that means death to Tropilaelaps
Now let's talk about the problem and probably why I'm doing this video and started this whole channel
Let's take a look where Tropilaelaps are found today
Afghanistan, India, Indonesia, Kenya Laos, Malaysia
Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Papua, New Guinea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam,
China South Korea, can you see the problem here?
recently Tropilaelaps were found in cold areas in China and South Korea
Meaning that Tropilaelaps is showing some sign of adaptation and perhaps
Overcoming its inability to feed on adult bees or some other kind of cold tolerance
We don't know for sure what's going on, but the fact is they are moving and we can't ignore that
The best way to avoid problem is to be prepared for the arrival in case it happens around you
So please help me to share this video with fellow beekeepers around the world so they can easily identify
Them and report to local authorities for more information about this mite
Please visit the video description below
Where I will share some links to articles about this pest if you want to know more about everything
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Project and impressed with the amount of people from all over the world that already accepted to collaborate
There are so many videos in the oven right now being prepared with great content about bees
pollination nature biology science and much more
The whole idea here is to create a community to learn about biology of bees and have fun
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Well, I think this is goodbye for now, and I hope you enjoyed and see you, see you in the next video. Bye