UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Winters can be tough on managed honey bee colonies, with beekeepers in the United States reporting that one-third of their colonies die each winter. A new study by Penn State researchers has found that using not one but multiple pest treatments may help bees make it to spring.
The researchers found that beekeepers who used a combination of treatments for Varroa mites — tiny parasites that can weaken and spread diseases to honey bees — had higher winter colony survival than those who used only one type of treatment. The findings were published in the Journal of Insect Science.
Additionally, while weather significantly impacted winter colony survival, beekeepers using these integrated pest management strategies — where multiple methods are used to control Varroa mites — had higher colony survival rates even in harsh weather conditions.
The study may provide beekeepers with information to help make decisions about managing their colonies to combat these high colony losses during the winter. Credit: Annie Spratt/Unsplash. JUNE 3, 2024 By Katie Bohn
Darcy Gray, a global remote sensing manager at the One Acre Fund who led the study while completing her master’s degree at Penn State in the intercollege Ecology Graduate Program administered by the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences, said she conducted this study to help provide beekeepers with the locally specific information they need to make decisions about how to best manage their colonies to combat these high colony losses during the winter.
“Honey bees pollinate various crops across North America, so it’s important to understand how they’re influenced by beekeeping strategies and their environment, particularly under increasing weather variability,” said Gray, who did her graduate research in the lab of Christina Grozinger, Publius Vergilius Maro Professor of Entomology in the College of Agricultural Sciences. “Understanding honey bees’ relationship to the environment can also shed light on and introduce new questions about native bees, which are also threatened by habitat loss and climate change.”
For the study, the …….
To access then complete Penn State article go to, Combining pest treatments may be key to helping honey bees survive the winter | Penn State University (psu.edu)
