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How did Varroa spread around the world?

BeesReviewed 2026-08-09

Short answerTrue

It is a natural parasite of the Asian honey bee, on which it does comparatively little harm. It transferred to the western honey bee where beekeeping brought the two species together, then travelled the world with managed colonies.

A host switch, then a trade route

Varroa destructor evolved with Apis cerana, the Asian honey bee. Host and parasite have a long shared history, and cerana colonies handle it — the damage is limited. Apis mellifera has no such history with it and is a naive host, on which the mite reproduces far more successfully and, critically, transmits viruses.

The transfer happened where beekeepers brought the two species into contact. From there the spread was not biological dispersal but freight: managed colonies, packages and queens moving between regions over the second half of the twentieth century carried it to most of the world's beekeeping.

Why it changed beekeeping

Varroa turned an untreated colony from something that might survive indefinitely into something that usually will not. Routine monitoring and control became part of ordinary beekeeping everywhere it arrived, feral colony populations were badly affected, and the viruses it transmits are a substantial part of why colony losses are what they are.

It is also the clearest illustration of a general pattern: tracheal mites, the small hive beetle, Nosema ceranae and several viruses have moved by the same routes. A parasite adapted to one host becoming a serious problem on a naive one, with trade as the vector.

Sources

  • The Biology of the Honey Bee — Harvard University Press (1987) · Textbook
  • The Lives of Bees: The Untold Story of the Honey Bee in the Wild — Princeton University Press (2019) · Monograph

How sources are selected and weighted is set out in the sources and evidence policy.

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