Early May. Colonies building fast, supers going on, swarm cells appearing where you did not expect them. If you are buying queens or packages this week, read the lead story before you place that order.
Last week we covered Norroa’s first field trial data. This week, a mite worse than varroa is closing in on Europe’s eastern border, Australia confirms synthetic miticide resistance is no longer theoretical, and a California study adds hard data to the “buy local queens” argument.
European Beekeepers’ Association Calls for Emergency Bee Import Ban Over Tropilaelaps Threat
The European Beekeepers’ Association (EBA) has called on the European Commission to immediately exclude Turkey, Ukraine, and Russia from the list of third countries authorized to export live bees into the EU. Tropilaelaps spp., a parasitic mite that reproduces faster and causes more severe colony losses than varroa, has been detected in Georgia and the Russian regions of Krasnodar and Rostov, within reach of Ukraine’s eastern border. EBA published the statement on 3 May 2026.
We covered Tropilaelaps geography briefly last week. What changed is the political escalation: the EBA is now formally demanding an emergency import suspension, and Moldova’s national beekeeping association (ANARM) has notified its food safety agency and agriculture ministry of the threat. In Kazakhstan, some regions have reported up to 80% colony losses linked to uncontrolled bee imports from Uzbekistan. Canada is pushing for a parallel ban on non-North American bee imports.
The practical risk for European hobby beekeepers is specific. Early May is peak queen and package buying season. EBA explicitly names online queen purchases from third-country sellers and informal “bus-route” imports as risk channels. Current EU import conditions do not include Tropilaelaps-specific controls. If you are buying queens from outside your country, you are relying entirely on the exporter’s honesty and the source country’s inspection capacity.
Tropilaelaps cannot survive long without brood. Unlike varroa, which can feed on adult bees for months, Tropilaelaps adults die within days without access to bee larvae. That biological constraint limits spread through adult-bee-only shipments. But queen cages with attendant bees from infested areas carry real risk, and any package with brood comb is a direct pathway.
The EBA’s call for a ban is the right move. The worst outcome would be a repeat of varroa’s arrival in Europe. Nobody was prepared, beekeepers were ashamed to admit their colonies were infested, and every unregulated chemical imaginable ended up in hives. We cannot afford that again with a parasite that is faster and more destructive.
Slovenia offers one example of how geographic protection works. Because the country is the native homeland of the Carniolan bee (Apis mellifera carnica), the Livestock Breeding Act (2002, Article 70) prohibits the breeding and trade of genetic material from other honeybee subspecies on Slovenian territory. This was secured as a condition during EU accession negotiations. It is not just breed pride. It is a legal barrier that also limits the import pathways through which exotic parasites travel. Compared to countries with open queen markets, Slovenian beekeepers can be somewhat calmer. But nature does not respect legislation or national borders. Monitoring matters more than laws on paper. Follow your national beekeeping organization’s updates. Stay in contact with your local beekeeping association. If Tropilaelaps reaches the EU, the first reports will come from people checking their hives, not from a press release.
If you are buying queens or packages in Europe this week, know exactly where they come from. Ask the breeder for the country of origin of the mother queen and whether colonies have been inspected for Tropilaelaps. If the answer is vague, find another breeder. Domestic, locally adapted queens remain the lowest-risk option. Canada is moving toward similar restrictions, and the mite’s westward trajectory makes this a global watch item.
Australia Confirms Varroa Resistance to Both Pyrethroids and Amitraz
Australia’s varroa story just got worse. Biosecurity Queensland confirmed that varroa populations in southeast Queensland and northern New South Wales now carry resistance markers against both pyrethroids (L925I and L925M mutations) and amitraz (Y215H mutation). The Australian Honey Bee Industry Council (AHBIC) published a biosecurity update on 29 April 2026 warning that resistance is “no longer considered geographically confined” and that beekeepers are experiencing “complete failure of treatments” with Bayvarol, Apistan, Apivar, and Apitraz.
This matters beyond Australia. Genetic testing shows the resistant mite population carries virus profiles most similar to North American and Belgian samples, suggesting a separate introduction from the original 2022 incursion. The 2022 mites had no resistance markers. These new ones arrived pre-equipped.
For European and North American beekeepers using synthetic strips as their primary varroa control: this is the trajectory. Monotherapy with amitraz or pyrethroids selects for resistance. Australia learned it in four years. AHBIC now explicitly recommends rotating with formic acid, oxalic acid, and thymol.
If you rely on a single synthetic miticide, start planning your rotation now. Mid-treatment alcohol washes (at weeks 3-4 for pyrethroids, weeks 5-6 for amitraz) detect treatment failure before you lose colonies. If you are already on organic acids, you are on the right side of this curve.
California Hybrid Bees Carry 68% Fewer Varroa Mites Than Commercial Stock
A four-year UC Riverside study published in Scientific Reports (Chong-Echavez & Baer, 2026) tracked 236 colonies in Southern California from 2019 to 2022. Colonies headed by locally raised hybrid queens averaged 1.26 mites per 100 bees, compared to 4.83 for commercial queens: a 68% reduction. The local hybrids were five times less likely to exceed the 3-mite treatment threshold.
Mite resistance showed up at the larval stage. In lab tests, varroa were less attracted to hybrid larvae at seven days old, the stage when mites normally invade brood cells. The researchers think the mechanism is genetic, not a behavioral trait adult workers learn. These bees are not a commercial breed. They are a feral hybrid with ancestry from African, Eastern European, Middle Eastern, and Western European lineages.
This is not a call to go catch feral bees. These Southern California hybrids carry Africanized genetics unsuitable for most managed apiaries. The practical takeaway: locally adapted queens, raised from survivor stock in your region, consistently outperform imported commercial queens on mite metrics. The Carniolan bees that Slovenian beekeepers have selected for generations are a parallel example. Local genetics plus selection pressure produces bees that handle local parasites better than anything shipped from a catalog.
If you are making requeening or split decisions this month, ask your breeder whether their stock undergoes mite-load testing. That single question tells you more than any marketing claim.
UK Records First Confirmed Asian Hornet of 2026 in Doncaster
The UK’s National Bee Unit confirmed the first credible 2026 sighting of a yellow-legged Asian hornet (Vespa velutina) in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, on 26 February. Last week we covered Guernsey’s early queen captures. The Doncaster sighting puts the 2026 front line inland and further north than most previous UK detections.
The 2025 numbers tell the scale: 544 credible sightings, 163 nests destroyed, up from 24 nests in 2024. NBU spring surveillance captured 20 queens, four confirmed as offspring of nests destroyed in 2024. Overwintered queens are establishing new colonies.
For beekeepers in the UK and across the Channel coast of northern France, Belgium, and the Netherlands: the spring queen trapping window is open now and closes by mid-June. Every founding queen caught in May is a nest prevented in August. Deploy traps with a sugar-beer-white wine bait, check weekly, and report suspect sightings via the Asian Hornet Watch app.
First full week of May. Supers on, swarms in the air, queens being ordered. Before you finalize any purchase this week, check the source country. That is the single highest-value action you can take right now.
