Tropilaelaps Mites - A New Threat For The Adult Honey Bees

We all have heard about the varroa mite and how it has been a significant threat to honey bees. While the varroa mite is the most significant and common parasite of honey bees worldwide, Tropilaelaps mites have emerged as another danger for these pollinators. Though smaller in size than the varroa mites, Tropilaelaps has a quicker reproductive rate. These mites have a more limited phoretic phase (i.e., the stage when the bug is on adult honey bees and is most effectively controlled), productive vector infections, including Deformed Wing Virus (DWV), and it continues on honey bees and in provinces like an acrobat.

Tropilaelaps mites are local to Asia and normally parasitize the brood of the Giant honey bees of Asia, for example, Apis dorsata. Two types of Tropilaelaps mites (Tropilaelaps clareae and T. mercedesae) are additionally able to parasitize European honey bees (Apis mellifera). Tropilaelaps mites are external parasites that feed on the haemolymph (blood) of drone bees and working bee pupae and reproduce on honey bee broods. 

Tropilaelaps mites invasion seriously harms honey bee states, for example, deformation in pupae and adults-ups (hindering, harmed wings/legs/midsections), parasitic mite syndrome (PMS) and colony collapse. The state may also abscond or swarm, further spreading the infection to new areas. Tropilaelaps mites can likewise spread infections which further influence the colony’s wellbeing and illness vulnerability. If Tropilaelaps mites get established in Australia, they will make critical losses to managed and wild honey bee states, crop fertilization and yields of raw honey items.

Detection of Tropilaelaps Mites on Adult Bees - 

Observing Tropilaelaps mites on adult honey bees is troublesome because only 3–4 per cent of adult Tropilaelaps parasites connect themselves to adult bees. At the point when adult Tropilaelaps mites rise out of a brood cell, they very quickly enter another brood cell within 48 hours, which makes it impossible that they will be seen on honey bees until the degree of perversion is very high. Thinking about this low level of the populace on adult honey bees, some detection techniques utilized for Varroa vermin, such as liquor washing and sugar shaking, are not accepted to be viable at recognizing Tropilaelaps parasites. 

However, this absence of grown-up vermin on grown-up honey bees implies that brood detection strategies, for example, drone uncapping, province assessment and sticky mat examination, can be potent. 

Since Tropilaelaps mites cause fundamentally the same side effects as Varroa parasites, beekeepers ought to consistently pay special attention to symptoms of PMS in their states of honey bees. Symptoms of PMS include unpredictable brood patterns, dead broods remaining somewhat uncapped in cells, deformed honey bees with distorted abdomens, or deformed or missing legs, just as perforated cappings because of sterile conduct of working drones. In addition, general colony symptoms like a decrease in the honey bee populace and colony health may likewise be noted.

Spread & Distribution -

Tropilaelaps mites are exceptionally mobile and can undoubtedly spread between honey bees and inside a province. Short and significant distance spread can happen through beekeeper management practices, as the transportation of pervaded hives or equipment (for example, beekeepers clothing) or through the movement of combs between hives. The typical nature of honey bees, for example, swarming, robbing, drifting, or absconding, can likewise handily spread Tropilaelaps bugs. In contrast to Varroa parasites, which might potentially survive on adult honey bees for months, Tropilaelaps mites can only survive for around three days on adult bees. Accordingly, the degree of Tropilaelaps vermin spread is somewhat reliant upon the degree of brood inside bee colonies.

Tropilaelaps mites can also be confused with pollen mites and Braula fly. According to Mr. Basem Barry, founder & CEO of Geohoney, it’s probably the right time to start understanding in detail about these mites. In this way, we all can more effectively grapple with it if it arrives in beekeeping farms to minimize the future risks and save these crucial pollinators from dying.