Effect of screen floors on populations of honey bees and parasitic mites (Varroa destructor)

Abstract

SUMMARYThis study compared brood production, honey consumption (in winter only), population growth of honey bees (Apis mellifera), and population growth of parasitic mites (Varroa destructor) in hives with open screen or wood as floor material. Two experiments were conducted in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA, one in winter (19 colonies) and one in summer (22 colonies). In both experiments, we established uniform colonies of honey bees by subdividing 30 kg of mite-infested bees. Each colony began with about 11 000 bees, no brood, and uniform populations of mites (127 and 480 mites per colony in winter and summer, respectively). The summer test included a third treatment (8 colonies) where a wooden tray (5 cm deep) closed the space beneath a screen floor. After the first 20 days of the experiments, when no adult bees or mites had yet been produced in any of the colonies, the treatments showed no differences in brood production, honey consumption, or survival of adult bees. At nine weeks, colonies with screen floors had fewer mites, a lower percentage of their mite population residing in brood cells (open screen only), and more cells of capped brood. These results suggest that colonies with open-screen floors may hold back the growth of mite populations by decreasing the rate at which mites invade brood cells.