At Virginia Tech’s teaching apiary in Blacksburg, the sound of buzzing bees blends with children playing outside at a nearby elementary school. James Wilson is getting hives ready for Virginia Tech students; they learn to care for bees here at this research station.
In addition to teaching students, Wilson also does outreach with hobbyist beekeepers across Virginia. A majority of his work includes how to manage an invasive pest, called the varroa mite, which is currently the biggest threat to bee populations around the world.
Now another mite, called tropilaelaps, is currently spreading across honeybee populations in Europe. “And now we can see that that mite can jump onto the European honeybee and wreak havoc from there,” Wilson said…