EFFICIENCY OF SOME BOTANICALS AGAINST Varroa destructor INFESTING HONEYBEE COLONIES AND THEIR IMPACT ON BROOD REARING ACTIVITY AND CLOVER HONEY YIELD

Abstract

This work is a study to evaluate the effect of some botanicals-based food mixtures added to sucrose syrup and offered to honeybee colonies on the development of Varroa infestation, brood rearing activity and clover honey yield during 2016/2017. The experiments were performed in the apiary of Faculty of Agriculture, Zagazig University. Summarized results are as follow: The rate of Varroa infestation increased gradually during summer season until recording the highest value in November. The food mixture composed of lemon juice + garlic extract reduced significantly the rate of Varroa infestation as compared to the control in all seasons of the year by 37.02-55.40%. The mixtures composed of parnove extract + orange juice and thyme extract + orange juice reduced significantly the rate of Varroa infestation during the period extended from February to August, recording the range of 35.82-45.47 and 34.78-48.13% reduction, respectively. The highest brood area (inch 2) was recorded during summer season followed closely by that of spring season, whereas the least activity was noticed in autumn season. The food mixture composed of lemon juice + garlic extract induced the highest brood rearing activity in all seasons of the year. The mixture of parnove extract + orange juice came in the second class. On the other hand, the mixture composed of thyme extract + orange juice showed the least brood rearing activity, being lower than the control. The mean clover honey yield recorded 5.00, 1.70, 6.50 and 4.00 kg/colony in 2016; 3.90, 2.00, 5.60 and 1.50 kg/colony in 2017 which offered the additive mixtures of parnove extract + orange juice, thyme extract + orange juice, lemon juice + garlic extract and sucrose syrup (control), respectively. The respective two years mean clover honey yield recorded 4.45, 1.85, 6.05 and 2.75 kg/colony.

Garlic, Allium sativum L. and Onion, Allium cepa L. as a Potent Anti-mite Varroa destructor, Parasited on Honey Bee, Apis mellifera L. in Egypt.

“…They added that the differences between the number of treatments were significant. El-Nagar et al (2019) reached to the same conclusion, indicating that the food mixture composed of lemon juice + garlic extract reduced significantly the rate of Varroa infestation as compared to the control by 37.02-55.40%.…”

Controlling varroa mites infesting honeybees (Apis mellifera L.) Using some essential oils and amitraz under colony conditions

“…This is consistent with what was found when the effects of fresh garlic, onion, a combination of them, garlic oil, and onion oil against Varroa mite in honey bee colonies were evaluated, the treatment with fresh garlic resulted in the highest percentage of fallen Varroa mite with 94.29 percent of the total Varroa present in the bee colony [24] . Also, in the work by El-Nagar et al, [25] when they were studied to evaluate the effect of some botanicals-based food mixtures added to sucrose syrup and offered to honeybee colonies on the development of Varroa infestation, brood rearing activity, and clover honey, summarized results are as follow: The food mixture composed of lemon juice + garlic extract reduced significantly the rate of Varroa infestation as compared to the control in all seasons of the year by 37.02-55.40%, also, the food mixture composed of lemon juice + garlic extract induced the highest brood rearing activity in all seasons of the year. This study confirms Peppermint oil and Lavender oil, on the other hand, had the lowest mean number of falling Varroa mites as compared to control colonies (0.728± 0.163) and (0.066 ± 0.066)fell mites/colony), these results match those observed in earlier studies by El-Sayed et al, [26] through which it was proven a diet that has been mixed with mint oil proved to be better to be offered to bees during winter, feeding on gave the highest means of sealed brood area (1348.0±13.93 inch2), number of eggs/queen/day (1195.64±12.35 eggs), and the number of frames covered with bee (9.0±0.00 frames/hive), and the fallen mites increased recording high mean numbers of 176.0 and 201.0 mites (effectiveness= 80.11 and 80.33%) (2019 season) and 201.0 and 161.0 mites (effectiveness= 87.06 and 83.85%) (2020 season), respectively.…”

An overview of artificial nutrition in apiculture

“…The fruits and vegetables from over 12 families have been used in one or more forms for supplementary feeding of honey bees (Nowar 2011;Pande et al 2015;Shehata 2016;Omar et al 2017;El-Nagar et al 2019). Among these, the Rutaceae family was most utilized in many forms, viz., fruit and shell juice of citrus, mandarin, and orange fruit (Table 8).…”