Abstract

Background:
Honey bees, Apis mellifera L., are exposed to many pests, including Varroa destructor, which is considered one of the most dangerous bee pests and destructive to bee colonies.

Aim:
This study aims to determine the efficiency of the volatile oil of Eucalyptus globulus against V. destructor in A. mellifera.

Methods:
In two ways. The first step is to smoke a piece of burlap saturated with eucalyptus oil in a chimney at a concentration of 5 ml/hive. Smoke is applied from the hive door in ten regular bursts per hive in succession. The second method is evaporation of eucalyptus oil using a bobbin connected to a dry battery. The following concentrations were used 1 ml oil, 1.5 ml oil, mixture of (0.5 + 1) and (1 + 0.5) ml oil and alcohol, and 1.5 ml alcohol. The mites that fall are counted after 1 and 24 h of application.

Results:
When smoking, it gave an average effectiveness of 57.3%, while reached 5 for the control transaction with significant differences at a probability level of 0.01, while the coil method gave the average effectiveness reached 85.3% when fumigating hive by 1.5 ml of (0.5 ml Eucalyptus oil + 1 ml alcohol). At the level of 0.01, significant differences were observed between this method and the control, which amounted to 22.2. It is observed when using a lower concentration of eucalyptus oil by adding an amount of alcohol. The results confirm that the oil maintained its effectiveness in reducing the waste of used oil. The effectiveness reached 90.1% when fumigating the hive with a concentration of 1.5 eucalyptus oil, 87.8% when mixing 0.5 ml of alcohol with 1 ml of oil, and 73.4% when mixing 0.5 ml of oil with 1 ml of alcohol. The average effectiveness reached 43.1% for the control 1.5 ml of alcohol. Significant differences were also observed between the treatments and the control with alcohol at a probability of 0.01.

Conclusion:
These results confirm the possibility of using Eucalyptus oil as a natural product that is safe for bees to combat Varroa.

Key words: Honey bees; Eucalyptus globulus; Varroa destructor; Volatile oils.