A foreign parasite taking hold of Michigan’s honey bee population has keepers and scientists ramping up ways to track its movements.
The Varroa mite entered the U-S during the 1980’s, on the backs of Asian bees. Native US bee populations are not immune to the deadly effects of the blood-sucking parasite. The Michigan State University Extension Service is asking beekeepers to participate in a program to identify Varroa outbreaks. Meghan Milbrath is a specialist with MSU. She says “Mite-a-thon 2018” is a citizen science effort.
“The goal for that is to get all of the bee keepers to monitor for Varroa mites in this week. And to register their mite counts at mitecount.com as a way to try to get data of what these Varroa rates all over the country”
Milbrath says the Varroa mite is one of the biggest threats to Michigan bee colonies. She says, so far, there is no remedy to prevent the spread from one colony to another.