Use of costic acid, a natural extract from Dittrichia viscosa, for the control of Varroa destructor, a parasite of the European honey bee

• Kalliopi Sofou,
• Demosthenis Isaakidis,
• Apostolos Spyros,
• Anita Büttner,
• Athanassios Giannis and
• Haralambos E. Katerinopoulos

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2017, 13, 952–959, doi:10.3762/bjoc.13.96

• efficient agent for controlling varroosis in honey bee colonies. Keywords: Apis mellifera; Dittrichia viscosa; natural products; Varroa destructor; varroosis; Introduction The honey bee ectoparasite Varroa destructor (Anderson & Trueman) was discovered by Oudemans in 1904 [1]. The mite was located on the

• pollinator decline is apparent [7][8], control of varroosis has a significant impact on the maintenance of wild plant diversity, ecosystem stability, and crop production. In Europe, many beekeepers used acaricides such as coumaphos and synthetic pyrethroids to keep mite populations under control [9][10

• varroosis. The use of oxalic acid as acaricide against V. destructor was first proposed in 1989 [16]. Subsequent studies indicated the potential of the method [17][18][19][20][21][22], which has been applied with better results during the broodless period. Application of the method does not increase the