The bee extinction from varroatosis can be avoided

The global honeybee dying-out began about fifty years ago in East Asia, from where it progressively expanded around the world. The disaster came in the form of the Varroa mite, the appearance of which in the hive could lead to the mass death of all insects. At first, no one thought that the catastrophe would ever reach global significance but very soon thousands of bee colonies were destroyed completely. They simply could not survive the onslaught of a terrible disease and beekeepers had no remedy to save them from the mite.

Bees are the main pollinator insects responsible for over 85 percent of the world’s crops. Even the partial extinction of bees threatens mankind with a terrible crisis: the number of cultivated plant products will be sharply reduced with the cotton industry and even animal husbandry suffering as well since many plants eaten by livestock are also pollinated by bees. With bees gone, people will be left without food and clothing, and very soon there will be a frightening hunger all over the planet.

A small mite, hundreds of times smaller than a bee, can still kill it and infect all the other bees from neighboring hives. It is the cause of such a disease as varroatosis, which presents itself both physically (bees are born with defects in their development: their wings are curved and deformed, in severe cases, they even have no legs) and in their behavior (aggression, abrupt fatigue, reduced honey production, and finally, complete death). The mite penetrates the body of an adult insect and parasitizes. Not only does it infect worker bees but also maggots and even the queen. This is why all subsequent generations of bees also become infected by the mite. Varroatosis is easily transmitted from one insect to another by touch and through pollen and remains in the offspring. As a result, the bee colony simply degenerates. Not only are varroatosis-affected bees more aggressive than healthy ones but they also make many times less honey and hardly pollinate flowers. According to the studies, starting from the 80s of the last century, every apiary in the Old World could be considered infected by Varroa in absentia.