Comparative Efficacy of Five Commercial Synthetic Acaricides against Varroa destructor (Anderson and Trueman) in Apis mellifera L. Colonies

The field experiment was conducted at apiary of University of Sargodha. The coordinates of apiary are 32 degrees 13' 15.7 '' N, 72 degrees 68'41.8 '' E. The apiary had 24 Langstroth standard colonies of Apis mellifera naturally infested with Varroa destructor. Ectoparasitic mite, V. destructor is considered the most important parasite of A. mellifera L. that badly affects the development and performance of bees. Main objective of our study was to assess the effectiveness of five synthetic acaricides (Bayvarol (R), Apivar (R), Apistan (R) Apitol (R) and Perizin (R)) against V. destructor in infested colonies of A. mellifera in Langstroth standard hives. Four hives were selected for each acaricide and one group of four hives was left untreated as control. As seen from results, all acaricides significantly reduced the infestation levels of varroa mite on adult honeybees and worker brood and the efficacy of Perizin (R) and Apistan (R) was high (91.3%+/- 0.81 and 81.6%+/- 1.2, respectively). Lowest mite mortality (52.3%+/- 1.2) was recorded in Apitol (R) treatment. Overall, the data indicated that acaricides like Perizin (R) and Apistan (R) were highly effective against V. destructor and can be recommended for better management of this destructive pest.