THE INFLUENCE OF THE SEASONS ON VARROA DESTRUCTOR INFESTATION LEVEL IN AFRICANIZED HONEY BEE FROM ATLANTIC FOREST

We investigated the influence of winter and summer on Varroa destructor infestation in honey bees from the Atlantic Forest in 28 apiaries, also registering the temperature and rainfall for the locations. We found 94% of the honey bee colonies were infested by varroa mite and its prevalence was higher in summer. General varroa infestation level was 4.2±3.9%. Colonies over winter (5.12±4.8%) presented higher infestation compared to summer (3.4±2.5%) ranging from 0 to 17.8% and Pearson correlation showed a low degree of correlation between temperature (r = -0.24; p=0.03) and rainfall (r = 0.23; p=0.04) with varroa infestation levels. We concluded that seasons can influence the mite infestation level and high mite levels found in some colonies, evidencing the need for constant monitoring to avoid colony loss.