“Bees are not just an incredibly charismatic insect, they’re also incredibly vital to our way of life as human beings,” said Samuel Ramsey, a Maryland entomologist.
Ramsey is an expert on Varroa destructor.
“This is an incredibly destructive parasite,” he said. “It is considered to be the leading issue in the trend of honey bee health decline that we’ve seen over the past decade.” While working on his Ph.D. at the University of Maryland, Ramsey discovered the mite actually feeds on the bee’s liver, not their blood.
But [Ramsey] said there’s another threat looming. A parasitic mite called tropilaelaps is destroying bee colonies in Asia and spreading.
Read full, original article: Maryland Entomologist Working To Understand, Control Threats To Honey Bee Population
