Effects of fluvalinate and amitraz on bee lice (Braula coeca Nitzsch) in honey bee (Apis mellifera L) colonies in Yugoslavia *, Jm Kulincevic, Te Rinderer, Vj Mladjan

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Jm Kulincevic, Te Rinderer, Vj Mladjan. Effects of fluvalinate and amitraz on bee lice (Braula coeca Nitzsch) in honey bee (Apis mellifera L) colonies in Yugoslavia *,. Apidologie, Springer Verlag, 1991, 22 (1), pp.43-47. ￿hal-00890891￿

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Effects of fluvalinate and amitraz on bee lice (Braula coeca Nitzsch) in honey bee (Apis mellifera L) colonies in Yugoslavia *,**

JM Kulincevic TE Rinderer VJ Mladjan

1 RO PKB Institute "Agroekonomik", Padinska Sekla 11000 Belgrade, Yugoslavia; 2 USDA, ARS, Honey-Bee Breeding, Genetics and Physiology Laboratory, 1157 Ben Hur Road, Baton Rouge, LA 70820, USA 3 Veterinary Institute, Vojvode Toze 14 1000 Belgrade, Yugoslavia;

(Received 14 March 1990; accepted 27 September 1990)

Summary — Braula coeca Nitzsch (Diptera, Braulidae) is killed in reasonably large numbers when honey bee colonies are exposed to fluvalinate in either aerosol or fumigant form. Similar treatments with amitraz do not appear to harm this dipteran commensal.

Braula coeca / acaricide / toxicity / commensal / Apis mellifera

INTRODUCTION immature forms of tunneling galleries through the cappings of honey may occa- the value of comb The bee louse, Braula coeca Nitzsch (Dip- sionally damage honey tera, Braulidae), is a cosmopolitan inhabi- products. tant of honey bee, Apis mellifera L colo- Although Braula lack economic impor- nies (Nixon, 1982; Smith and Caron, tance, their presence in bee hives has 1985). The natural history of this highly greater importance because of Varroa ja- adapted dipteran has been summarized cobsoni. The 2 species might be confused by Eckert and Shaw (1977), Knutson by casual or inexperienced observers (1978) and Morse (1987). Braula is gener- since adults of both Braula and Varroa ally regarded to be a commensal of honey have similar color and size. However, bees. However, Bailey (1963) speculates identifications can be made on other char- that a high infestation of Braula on a sin- acteristics; the flies have 3 pairs of legs gle queen may impair her egg-laying effi- and are longer than they are wide while ciency. Benton (1896) reported collecting the mites have 4 pairs of legs and are wid- 75 flies from one queen. Also, the habit of er than they are long.

* In cooperation with the Louisiana Agricultural Experiment Station. ** Mention of a proprietary compound or trademark make does not constitute an endorsement. This article reports research results and does not contain recommendations. *** Correspondence and reprints The use of acaracides in conjunction 7 d following treatment. Numbers of dead Braula with paper bottom board inserts to collect were determined from these inserts for each col- after the flies were from Var- dead mites is a common technique used ony distinguished roa. All colonies were re-examined following a to detect Varroa and Hermann, (Dietz December 29th exposure to fluvalinate as a fu- The reddish mites contrast with the 1988). migant at 0.0025 g per colony. As before, paper light background of the paper and are eas- inserts were used to collect dead Braula. The ily counted. In many instances, counts rep- number of dead flies after 7 d was estimated for resent experimental data or are used to each colony. make regulatory decisions. Analysis of data, using square-root trans- formed with This the of data, began one-way analyses of paper reports response variance for treatment effects for each treatment Braula coeca to used to con- compounds period. Square root transformations were used trol Varroa jacobsoni. The issue is impor- to stabilize the variance among treatment tant since the presence and frequency of groups. Duncan’s multiple range tests on square Braula may confound identifications and root transformed data were used as post analy- counts of Varroa. sis of variance tests.

MATERIALS AND METHODS RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

A single apiary containing 60 colonies of honey After the first period of treatment only flu- bees, Apis mellifera carnica, was studied in the valinate killed Braula and the fumigation winter of 1987. These colonies occupied hives technique or the higher dose of toxicant with 2 chambers, were of similar size Langstroth used in fumigation killed more (P < 0.05) 000-40 000 and were broodless due (20 bees) Amitraz killed few Braula re- to the winter season. The 60 colonies were ran- (table I). very of the method of or domly assigned to 4 groups, each of which re- gardless application ceived one of 4 experimental treatments. These dosage. Both compounds killed large num- treatments consisted of : 1) fumigation with 0.02 bers of Varroa jacobsoni regardless of g of amitraz; 2) fumigation with 0.0025 g of flu- method of application or dosage (Kulincev- valinate; 3) aerosol treatment with 0.006 g of ic et al, 1991). amitraz; and 4) aerosol treatment with 0.0012 g of fluvalinate. Braula mortality after the second period of treatment confirms the results of the first Fumigation treatments were accomplished All colonies were with by burning smoldering strips of filter paper im- period. fumigated pregnated with NaNO3 and toxicant. The fluvalinate. Colonies that had previously NaNO3 causes the ignited paper to smolder and been treated with amitraz contained Braula produce smoke which carries the toxicant which died after the second treatment. the hive. Aerosols were as throughout prepared Thus, Braula were present in the colonies water dilutions of toxicant which were applied by but remained alive after amitraz treatment. an air compression device VAT-1, made in Czechoslovakia. During aerosol applications the The colonies which had originally been hives were closed for 7-10 min. The methods of treated still contained some Braula which delivering amitraz and fluvalinate in the doses died following the second treatment. chosen were based on reports of effective pro- No data were collected concerning the cedures using low doses of materials in the con- effects of treatment on larval forms of trol of Varroa (Vesely et al, 1987; Kulincevic et al, 1990). Braula. However, since Varroa is protected wax over the brood cells it in- Treatments were applied to colonies on No- by cappings vember 13, 1987. Paper bottom board inserts fests, it is likely that larval Braula are simi- were used to collect the dead Braula through larly protected. The observation that fluvalinate has the CONCLUSION potential to kill Braula coeca is important information. Persons the using compound The natural constraints on Braula popula- in association with or in sur- experiments tions are not known. Although Braula is vey and detection programs must identify found in North America, it is only occasion- the arthropods they observe. Small num- ally seen. Varroa jacobsoni was far more bers of Braula may interfere with the accu- common in the colonies of this experiment, racy of quantitative data and even qualita- but the numbers found cannot be consid- tive data in some circumstances. ered high. Because of such low numbers, there is that the intensive Although Braula was found in every col- every possibility use of fluvalinate threaten the survival ony in this experiment, in no case were may enough adults found to suggest that Braula of Braula coeca, at least in some localities the world. is more than an interesting commensal of throughout honey bee colonies. Its low frequency of occurrence suggests that naturally occur- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ring mechanisms operate which keep pop- ulations of Braula coeca in check. None- We thank S M Buco for the statistical theless, some beekeepers apparently analyses. consider B coeca to be undesirable and This research was financed by the United States of Office Interna- wish to control it Such con- Department Agriculture, (Caron, 1985). tional Cooperation and Development’s Speical cerns become less common in areas may Foreign Currency Program and the Yugoslav- where fluvalinate is used to control Varroa United States Joint Fund for Scientific and Tech- jacobsoni. nological Cooperation. Résumé — Action du fluvalinate et de einem Versuch in Jugoslawien mit 60 l’amitraze sur le pou des abeilles (Brau- Völkern von Apis mellifera carnica warden la coeca Nitzsch) dans des colonies vier verschiedene Behandlungsarten an d’abeilles (Apis mellifera L) en Yougos- Gruppen zu je 15 Völkern angewandt: lavie. Le pou des abeilles, Braula coeca Beräuchern mit Amitraz, Beräuchern mit Nitzsch (Diptera, Braulidae) est un insecte Fluvalinat, Aerosol-Behandlung mit Ami- hautement évolué, présent en faible quan- traz und mit Fluvalinat. Danach wurden tité dans les colonies, partout où se trouve alle Völker mit Fluvalinat beräuchert. l’abeille mellifera Un domestique (Apis L). Die Ergebnisse zeigten, daß Fluvalinat rucher de 60 colonies d’A m carnica en sowohl als Aerosol wie als Räuchermittel Yougoslavie a été divisé en 4 groupes de Braula coeca abtötete. Amitraz hingegen 15 colonies. a subi l’un Chaque groupe tötete in keiner die Bie- des 4 traitements suivants : Anwendungsform fumigation nenlaus. Diese Ergebnisse weisen darauf avec 0,02 d’amitraze, avec g fumigation hin, daß bei allen Versuchen, welche die 0,0025 g de fluvalinate, aérosol avec Anwendung von Fluvalinat zur 0,006 g d’amitraze et aérosol avec 0,0012 g von Varroa betref- de fluvalinate. Un mois et demi plus tard Bekämpfung jacobsoni fen, die klare Bestimmung aller abgetöteter elles ont toutes reçu une fumigation avec Arthropoden angegeben werden sollte. Die 0,0025 g de fluvalinate. Le fluvalinate, qu’il von Braula coeca soit appliqué en fumigation ou en aérosol, Empfindlichkeit ge- Fluvalinat wirft darüber hinaus die a tué B coeca, contrairement à l’amitraze genüber auf, ob nicht lokale qui ne l’a pas tué quelle que soit la modali- Frage Populationen, té de traitement. En conséquence, des die an sich nur von geringer Größe sind, identifications précises des arthropodes durch die Anwendung von Fluvalinat moribonds devraient être faites lors des gefährdet werden könnten. expériences et des dépistages concernant Varroa jacobsoni Oud utilisant du fluvali- Braula coeca / Akarizide / Giftigkeit / nate. La sensibilité de B coeca au fluvali- Apis mellifera nate et ses faibles effectifs de population soulèvent la question du danger potentiel REFERENCES que représente l’usage du fluvalinate pour les populations locales de B coeca. Bailey L (1963) Infectious Diseases of the Hon- Braula coeca / acaricide / toxicité / com- ey Bee. Land Books London Ltd, pp 176 mensal / Apis mellifera Benton F (1896) The Honey Bee. A Journal of Instruction in Apiculture. USDA Tech Bull, Washington, pp 118 Die von Zusammenfassung — Wirkung Caron DM (1985) Braula coeca. In: The Illustrat- Fluvalinat und Amitraz auf die Bienen- ed Encyclopedia of Beekeeping (Morse RA, laus (Braula coeca) in Bienenvölkern in Hopper T, eds) EP Dutton Inc, NY, 53-54 Jugoslawien. Die Bienenlaus Braula coe- Dietz A, Hermann HR (1988) Biology, Detection, ca ist ein kosmopolitischer Bewohner von and Control of Varroa jacobsoni: A Parasitic Bienenvölkern (Apis mellifera). Diese Mite on Honey Bees. 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