Abstract

The honey bee contributes to the pollination of a large number of plants as well as their food products, especially honey. Therefore, it is considered an important economic insect. The insect attacks a number of diseases and pests, including the Varroa mite Varroa destructor, the most dangerous of which is due to its resistance to chemical treatments that have a harmful effect on bees and pollute their products. For this reason, the goal of the study is to combat Varroa mites in honey bee colonies with environmentally friendly materials by evaluating the effectiveness of three types of essential oils from Eucalyptus globulus, Calotropis procera, Artemisia vulgaris. The research was carried out in April 2024 in Diyala Governorate, Iraq. With two exposure periods of 24, 48 hours, control was carried out in two ways, one of which was smoking using a piece of burlap saturated with oil by the smoker, and the second method was using paper saturated with oil placed under the hive to find out the most effective method, whether oil or method. The results after 24 hours of smoking with oil-saturated burlap indicated that eucalyptus was the most effective, with the average effectiveness reaching 75.5% for Calotropis procera oil, followed by Eucalyptus globulus oil at 66.5%, followed by a mixture of oils at 64.9%, then Artemisia vulgaris oil at 58.1%, compared to the control treatment at 24.9%. As for the oil-impregnated paper method, the highest effectiveness was Calotropis procera oil with an average effectiveness of 54.7%, Followed by mixed oils 53.6%, followed by Artemisia vulgaris oil with 41.4%, then Eucalyptus globulus oil with 36.2% compared to the control with 43.8%. The smoking method using burlap saturated with oil is more effective than the method of smoking paper saturated with oil. The highest average of Varroa mites was 86.5 for Calotropis procera oil, while the lowest average was 38 for Artemisia vulgaris oil.We conclude that essential oils are effective in combating Varroa mites, especially Calotropis procera oil, in addition to the fact that they are natural and safe for bees and their products.