Evaluating the impact of jatropha oil extract against the Varroa mite, Varroa destructor Anderson & Trueman (Arachnida: Acari: Varroidae), infesting honeybee colonies (Apis mellifera L.)

Saad H D Masry,Tarek E Abd El-Wahab,Mohamed Rashad

doi:10.1186/s41938-020-00292-3

Saad H D Masry, Tarek E Abd El-Wahab + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1186/s41938-020-00292-3

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Abstract

The Varroa mite, Varroa destructor Anderson & Trueman (Arachnida: Acari: Varroidae), is a severe external parasitic mite of honeybees that causes great losses of colonies globally. Four concentrations (1, 2%, 5, and 10%) of Jatropha curcas oil were tested for controlling the Varroa mite. Significant effects of reducing percentage of the mite infestation (P = 0.05) after second treatment for sealed brood and after third treatment for adult workers in all tested concentrations of J. curcas were recorded. The low concentrations 1 and 2% of J. curcas were more effective than the higher ones 5 and 10% on reduction of percentage of Varroa mite infestation. Moreover, the colonies treated with the lowest concentrations of jatropha oil had the highest amount of brood area (75.75 and 77.50 inch2) and the highest number of combs covered with bees compared with the colonies treated with the concentrations 5 and 10%. Treated colonies with the concentrations 1, 10, and 5% had a high amount of stored honey and pollen grains, 126.50, 111, and 96 inch2 and 11.25, 9.75, and 9.75 inch2, respectively. Obtained results encourage researchers to study deeply the ability of using jatropha oil in the widely field of Apicultural.

Highlights

In the last decades, researchers identified 4 factors significantly affected honeybee populations around the world: exposure to pesticides and pollution, pathogens, parasites, and poor nutrition (Goulson et al 2015 and Al Naggar et al 2020)
The present study aimed to evaluate the efficiency of jatropha seed oils against Varroa destructor (Varroa) mites and the side-effect of the oil on the biological activities of honeybee colonies
Twenty honeybee colonies of Carniolan hybrid Apis mellifera L. heavily infested by Varroa mites were used for the experiment

Summary

Introduction

Researchers identified 4 factors significantly affected honeybee populations around the world: exposure to pesticides and pollution, pathogens, parasites, and poor nutrition (Goulson et al 2015 and Al Naggar et al 2020). The Varroa mite, Varroa destructor Anderson & Trueman (Arachnida: Acari: Varroidae), is an external parasite of the honeybee Apis mellifera L. feeds on bee’s hemolymph and caused the collapse of heavily infested and untreated colonies in a few years (Ramsey et al 2019). Synthetic acaricides such as fluvalinate, flumethrin, and amitraz have been used successfully to control the mite (Gracia et al 2017). Several studies have focused on natural products such as plant extracts and essential oils against V. destructor in honeybee colonies (Ariana et al 2002). The efficiency of some essential plant oils such as eucalyptus, thyme, neem, sage, and grape fruit against Varroa mites has been reported by many researchers (Dimetry et al 2005; Rashid et al 2011; Abd El-Wahab et al 2012; Islam et al 2016, and Nowar et al 2018)

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