A Mite We Don’t Want Here — ABJ on Tropilaelaps Research

The October American Bee Journal ran a short news item that’s worth a backyard beekeeper’s attention, even though it’s about a pest we don’t have here yet. HONEES, the company that makes the honey-filled cough drops, announced a $10,000 grant to PHIRA-Science, the Pollinator Health International Research Association, to study Tropilaelaps, a parasitic mite that’s been worrying bee researchers around the world.

Here’s what the piece says about it. Tropilaelaps started out in Southeast Asia on Asian honey bees, jumped to the European honey bees most of us keep, and is now moving westward into Europe. Researchers are concerned it could eventually reach the Americas through travel, shipping, or moving bees and equipment around. Chuck Landrey, a vice president at HONEES and a beekeeper himself, put it plainly: Varroa weakens a colony over time, but Tropilaelaps can kill a hive in a matter of weeks, damaging developing bees and spreading viruses. The article also notes that scientists are still working out the mite’s life cycle, behavior, and how to control it, which is exactly why the money matters.

Ten thousand dollars won’t solve anything by itself, and the article doesn’t pretend it will. But I like seeing a company that sells honey putting a little back into the bees, and I like research that gets ahead of a problem instead of chasing it after it lands.

For those of us keeping a few hives around Pearland and Brazoria County, the takeaway is simple. We already know how much damage Varroa did when it arrived. Keep doing your mite counts this fall, keep your treatments on schedule, and be careful about where bees and used equipment come from. If you ever see brood that looks wrong and doesn’t match anything you know, don’t shrug it off — call the Texas Apiary Inspection Service and have somebody look. Good habits now are what will help if this mite ever does show up on our side of the ocean.

Read it from the source: HONEES Announces $10,000 Grant to Support Honey Bee Research (American Bee Journal, October 2026).

Back in the yard: month-by-month work and the rest of the journal.