

VarroaPop is available for download. New Tool for Battling Varroa Mite Offered to Beekeepers By Marcia Wood February 28, 2001Beekeepers can now get help from
their computers when a dreaded pest, varroa mite, shows up in their hives. New
software called "VarroaPop"--short for "varroa
populations"--gives U.S. beekeepers a science-based estimate of how fast
the mite population in a beehive, or colony, might grow. The varroa mite, Varroa jacobsoni, is regarded as the single worst
pest of honey bees in the United States. Beekeepers can use the computer-generated estimates in deciding whether to
spend money to treat hives with mite-killing chemicals. VarroaPop also helps
them decide whether weak, underpopulated hives are doomed--and best
discarded--or whether a better option would be to combine the struggling hives
with larger, stronger colonies that might be able to withstand mite attack. Agricultural Research Serviceresearch entomologist Gloria DeGrandi-Hoffman at Tucson, Ariz., and colleague
Robert J. Curry of the University of
Arizona-Tucson, developed the software. To get an estimate of the future size of a mite population, beekeepers input
a few simple details, such as the number of mites that they captured when they
took a quick sample of their hives. Available for downloading from the Internet, VarroaPop is the first publicly
available software program that beekeepers can use to predict the mite's impact
and to manage their hives accordingly. The estimates are derived from
mathematical equations that DeGrandi-Hoffman and Curry developed. The
equations, in turn, are based on the researchers' analysis of 25 years' worth
of scientific data about the mite. DeGrandi-Hoffman and Curry are now updating VarroaPop to incorporate
suggestions from some of the more than 300 beekeepers and others who have
already downloaded and tested it. VarroaPop is available at: http://gears.tucson.ars.ag.gov ARS is the U.S. Department of
Agricultures chief scientific research agency. Scientific contact: Gloria DeGrandi-Hoffman,
ARS Carl Hayden Bee Research
Center, Tucson, Ariz.; phone (520) 670-6380, ext. 105, fax (530) 670-6493,
[email protected].  U.S. Department of Agriculture |