Varroa destructor

Definition

Varroa feeds on developing and adult bees and transmits several viruses, most seriously deformed wing virus. It jumped from its original host, Apis cerana — which tolerates it — to Apis mellifera, which had no defences, and spread globally through the twentieth century. Untreated colonies of the western honey bee usually collapse within two or three years.

Where the word gets used loosely

Often folded into 'colony collapse disorder' in press coverage. They are not the same thing: varroa and its viruses are a specific, well-characterised and manageable problem, while colony collapse disorder described a particular pattern of losses whose causes were never resolved to one factor.

Honey records that discuss this

• Western Australian wildflower honeyComplex and variable, generally warm and lightly caramelised with a resinous myrtaceous lift and considerable site-to-site difference.

Bee records that discuss this

• Asian honey beeThe western honey bee's counterpart across Asia, and a bee whose importance is out of all proportion to its honey yield. Apis cerana is the original host of Varroa destructor — the mite that has reshaped beekeeping worldwide — and it lives with the parasite without collapse. Understanding how is one of the more consequential open questions in apiculture.

Guide records that discuss this

• The honey bee lifecycleEvery honey bee passes through egg, larva, pupa and adult, and the timing differs by caste in ways that decide almost everything about how a colony works — including why the varroa mite is so difficult to control.
• Honey bee viruses: why finding one is not finding diseaseHoney bee colonies commonly carry several viruses without showing it. What turns a quiet infection into a dying colony is usually something else — above all the varroa mite. What the main viruses do, which ones the mite carries, and what a positive test can and cannot tell you.