Investigation of infestation of Apis mellifera L. honey bee hives with V. destructor mites in different seasons in some apiaries in the suburbs of Yasouj and Mamsani

Subject Areas : Entomology

Morteza Kazemi Mansoorabad ¹ , ُShahrzad Azhari ^{2 *} , Alireza Monfared ³ , Reza Naghiha ⁴ , رضا امیری فهلیانی ⁵

1 - ِDept of Plant Protection, Yasouj University, Yasouj, Iran
2 -
3 - Dept. of Plant Protection, Faculty of Agriculture, Yasouj Universit, Iran
4 - Dept of Pathobiology, Faculty of Vet. Shahid Chahmran Ahvazm Ahvaz
5 - بیسیج مهندسین کشاورزی و منابع طبیعی

Received: 2025-09-05 Accepted : 2025-10-22 Published : 2025-10-26

Keywords: Honey bee, hive, V. destructor,

Abstract :

Honeybee (Apis mellifera L.) is one of the 20,000 species of pollinator bees of the superfamily Apoidea. Honeybees are one of the most important species of these bees. Bee breeding is a major industry in the world. This bee and its products have a very high economic value. However, limiting factors such as pests and diseases can reduce the production and reproduction of these bees or destroy the hives of these bees. Parasitic mites are prevalent among apiaries in Iran, but there are no specific statistics on their infection rate in the Yasouj and Mamsani regions, which have numerous apiaries. This study was conducted to investigate the prevalence of parasitic mites in Yasouj and Mamsani hives in different seasons in two consecutive years. The apiaries were located from 790 meters to 2415 meters above sea level. The location of the hives from the plains to mountainous areas with large climatic differences provided a good basis for comparing the effect of altitude on the infection rate with Varroa mites. Sampling was carried out from Yasouj and Mamsani apiaries between 2021 and 2022 in different seasons. Permission to sample 12 apiaries in the study area was obtained from beekeepers, then 5 hives were randomly selected from each apiary and 20 bees were collected from each hive. The collected bee samples were transferred to the laboratory. The mite V. destructor Anderson & Trueman, 2000 samples were separated from the bees and placed in 70% alcohol. The results showed that the apiaries were infested with mites from 25 to 100% in all seasons. The only significant difference was between the seasons related to winter and summer (1%: P>99% ). In the remaining seasons, no significant difference was observed either in one year or in two consecutive years. Also, no statistical correlations was observed between the difference in altitude and the amount of infestations. Due to the relocation of hives in the provinces and regions of the country and numerous sprayings, these contaminations showed heterogeneous changes in different seasons. Due to the migration of beekeepers, contamination can be transferred between apiaries.

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