Honey bees, Varroa mites and unintended consequences

FEW PESTS are more feared by apiarists than the aptly named Varroa destructor. This mite, originally a parasite of Apis cerana, the Asian honey bee, has plagued Apis mellifera, cerana’s western cousin, for only 50 years or so—having arrived in Europe via what was then the Soviet Union and subsequently spread to both North and South America. But a plague it is. Varroa is now so common that the mites are found in nearly every hive in the United States.