Abstract

MARCANGELI, Jorge  and  GARCIA, María del Carmen. Effect of Apis mellifera (Apidae) honeybee brood amount on Oxavar® acaricide efficacy against the mite Varroa destructor (Varroidae). Rev. Soc. Entomol. Argent. [online]. 2004, vol.63, n.3-4, pp.35-38. ISSN 0373-5680.

The aim of this work was to evaluate the effect of honeybee brood on acaricide efficacy of Oxavar® to control the ectoparasitic mite Varroa destructor (Anderson & Trueman). Work was done at Centro de Extensión Apícola experimental apiary located at Coronel Vidal, province of Buenos Aires. Ten Langstroth hives were selected and divided in two groups: a) hives containing three honeybee combs full of brood and b) hives containing six honeybee brood combs. Both groups received five ml of Oxavar® (Laboratorio Apilab, Argentina; 64.6 g/l oxalic acid in destilled water) by comb covered by adult honeybees in three doses at seven days period. Weekly, dead mites were collected from special floors to avoid mite removal by adult honeybees. Then, two Apistan® (Laboratorio Roteh, Argentina) strips were placed in each colony to kill remant mites in colonies and the acaricide efficacy was calculated. Results showed that Oxavar® efficacy in the first group (85.6% ± 1.4) was significantly higher than in the second one (75.7 ± 1.7). These differences were tested on the basis of total number of mites killed by Oxavar® and Apistan® in both groups (p< 0.05). Results show a good efficacy of this product, being application recomended in colonies with reduced honeybee brood.

Keywords : Varroa destructor; Apis mellifera; Oxavar®; Oxalic acid.

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