Honey bees are important pollinators of commercial crops and produced an estimated total honey crop of 1.85 million tons in 2019. Varroa mites are a serious pest of honey bee colonies around the world and chemical miticides are typically used to control them. Entomologists at Washington State University have bred a strain of a fungus to work as a biological control agent against Varroa mites.
A technique called directed evolution was used for breeding the fungus so can it can survive the heat inside a beehive. Directed evolution speeds up the natural variation and selection process.
The fungus could replace the use of chemicals to control Varroa mite-infested colonies. Government authorities will have to approve the use of the fungus before bee-keepers around the world will be allowed to use it.