Apiculture in the Pacific island country of Papua New Guinea (PNG) is under significant pressure from emerging parasitic mites, Varroa jacobsoni and Tropilaelaps mercedesae. Although numerous mite control products exist, beekeepers in PNG have limited resources and access to these products and their effectiveness under local conditions is untested. Here we determined the effectiveness of two brood manipulation strategies—queen caging and queen removal—for managing V. jacobsoni and T. mercedesae in comparison to the chemical miticide Bayvarol®. Our results found Bayvarol was the most effective control strategy for V. jacobsoni, maintaining high efficacy (> 90%) over 4 months with significantly reduced levels of V. jacobsoni compared to untreated control hives. In contrast, T. mercedesae were significantly reduced by the brood manipulation strategies over 2 months, but not significantly by Bayvarol compared to the controls. These results highlight that a combination of strategies is likely needed to effectively manage both mite pests in PNG. We discuss how these findings are relevant to informing best practice for honey bee biosecurity and how these strategies can be implemented to improve the effectiveness of mite management for PNG beekeepers.

中文翻译：

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巴布亚新几内亚Varroa jacobsoni和Tropilaelaps mercedesae控制策略的有效性

太平洋岛国巴布亚新几内亚（PNG）的养蜂业受到新兴寄生螨，Varroa jacobsoni和Tropilaelaps mercedesae的巨大压力。尽管存在众多防螨产品，但巴布亚新几内亚的养蜂人资源有限，无法获得这些产品，其在当地条件下的有效性未经测试。在这里，与化学杀螨剂Bayvarol®相比，我们确定了两种育雏操作策略（女王笼和皇后去除）在管理V. jacobsoni和T. mercedesae中的有效性。我们的结果发现，Bayvarol是V. jacobsoni的最有效控制策略与未经处理的蜂箱相比，在四个月内保持了较高的功效（> 90％），而雅克布氏梭菌的水平明显降低。相比之下，T. mercedesae均显著由育雏操作策略降低超过2个月，但不显著通过Bayvarol与对照组相比。这些结果表明，可能需要采取多种策略来有效管理PNG中的两种螨虫。我们将讨论这些发现与告知蜜蜂生物安全最佳做法的相关性，以及如何实施这些策略来提高PNG养蜂人螨虫管理的有效性。