Maggie Gill Tropilaelaps: a lesser known, but greater menace.

Maggie Gill has produced queens and colonies on a small commercial scale and for the last decade has conducted extensive research as a senior scientist at Defra. Maggie's primary focus lies in understanding how agri-environment land management impacts pollinators as part of the Future Farming and Countryside Programme. She has contributed to the UK's bee health monitoring program as both a seasonal and regional bee inspector. Maggie's passion for bees and environmental conservation drives her honey bee research, which delves into pollinator nutrition, pests, and diseases. Meet Tropilaelaps -a brood parasite, a tiny mite targeting honey bees. These mites naturally infest giant Asian honey bees (Apis dorsata), but have now jumped species to western honey bees (Apis mellifera), causing significant colony losses. Tropilaelaps can reproduce faster than their notorious cousin, the varroa mite, and cause more damage to bee brood as they feed. With increasing global trade and climate change expanding their range, Tropilaelaps has become a looming danger to the UK. Following a similar path to varroa in the 1980s, Tropilaelaps was confirmed in Europe in 2024, in the Krasnodar region of Russia and Georgia. With beekeepers there reporting high colony losses for years before the culprit was identified. In this lecture, Maggie Gill delves into this tiny mite's world and uncovers the challenges beekeepers face in their fight against Tropilaelaps.