Every year, up to half the honeybee colonies in the U.S. die. Varroa mites, the bees’ ghastly parasites, are one of the main culprits. After hitching a ride into a hive, a mite mom hides in a ...
The drastic decline in global honeybee populations is no secret. The phenomenon has been named “colony collapse syndrome,” and though it’s not clear what factors led up to it, entomologist Samuel ...
A dozen fifth-graders peer at a blown-up microscope image of a Varroa mite. “It’s not a pretty thing,” master beekeeper Carmen Weiland tells them. The mite has a bulbous body, eight segmented legs ...
A reddish-black mite the size of a tiny crumb latches onto a honeybee, feeding on its fat body and transmitting diseases as the bee struggles to survive. The Varroa destructor, an aggressive mite, ...