The Buzz on Being an Aussie Yorkshire Beekeeper: Those Pesky Varroa Mites

In 1992 the first infestation of Varroa mites were found in the UK, this had a massive impact on the honeybee and beekeeping.

This horrible little critter spread from Asia where it lived on a Asian type of bee that could cope with it quite well.

Unfortunately it was able to host on the European Honey Bee which doesn't know how to deal with it.

This mite is now a problem around the world but as only recently been found in Australia.

The Varroa causes various issues to the Honey Bee with the most visible being deformed wing virus

If left untreated the colony will weaken and eventually die out.

Sadly wild colonies of Honeybees struggle to survive and even more upsetting is that they now rely on Beekeepers.

The good news is that we have ways of treating the Varroa, just about every hive will always have Varroa but we can keep the numbers down.

The treatments used are from natural products but can only be used when there is no honey on the beehives.

The one I have been using over winter is an Oxalic Acid based substance, Oxalic is found in a lot of food and very high in Rhubarb, we vape this into the hive, it does not harm the bees but it wipes out the Varroa, this process is very harmful to people in inhaled.

Hopefully one day soon the European Honey Bee will learn to cope with this parasite on their own.