Population dynamics of Varroa destructor in Honey bee colonies of East Azarbaijan

Elmi, Mohsen¹
1-     MSc. East Azarbaijan Research Center for Agriculture and Natural Resources
 
In this research 10 honey bee colonies were purchased from apiaries of province, randomly and maintained throughout the research period in stationary apiary. The colonies initially have had young queens and no acaracide treatment was applied to them for 1 last year. Population dynamics of honey bee and Varroa destructor were determined for 7 months (early spring to early autumn 2007) monthly measuring of adult and pupa population and their infestation rate to varroa mite. The Results showed that mite infestation rate of adult bees and pupas gradually increased from May to December 2007. The Pearson R coefficient was calculated to estimate association between specific variables. There is a significantly negative correlation between number of pupas and their infestation values to varroa(r = -0.325, p<0.006); demonstrating that the lower the number of pupas the higher the infestation rate of each pupa. This relationship was not found between adults and their infestation rate(r = -0.031, p<0.801). Infestation rate of adult bees and pupas have had a significantly positive relationship(r = 0.355, p<0.003). There were no correlation between the number of adult bees and infestation rate of pupas and vise versa(r = -0.089, p<0.464; r = -0.216, p<0.072).