A brood mite from Asia that can wreck a honey bee colony faster than varroa. It is on the World Organisation for Animal Health list; in the EU, Great Britain and many other countries even a suspicion must be reported at once.
If you suspect it
- Do not move colonies, frames, honey or equipment out of the apiary.
- Put a few of the mites in 70% alcohol (not denatured spirit) in a closed tube, with the apiary and the date written on it.
- Report it the same day to the official veterinary service: in Türkiye the İl/İlçe Tarım ve Orman Müdürlüğü, in the EU your competent authority, in Great Britain the National Bee Unit or your bee inspector. Your country's rule is on your apiary page, in the regulations card.
- Record the visit in ARIA with "Tropilaelaps" as the disease: it goes into your apiary log and your country's record book.
Where it is now
Established in southern Russia (Krasnodar and Rostov, since at least 2021) and in western Georgia (since at least 2023), where it survives the winter. On 31 August 2026 Türkiye confirmed an outbreak first found in Çavuşlu, Artvin Province, and reported it to the World Organisation for Animal Health. Beekeepers in Türkiye, the Caucasus and around the Black Sea are the first who need to recognise it.
Tropilaelaps or varroa?
- Tropilaelaps: about 1 mm long and half as wide (longer than it is wide), red-brown, running fast over the comb.
- Varroa: about 1.1 mm long and 1.6 mm wide (wider than it is long, like a tiny crab), moving slowly.
A ×10 magnifying glass is enough to tell them apart.
Signs in the colony
- Irregular, patchy brood.
- Dead or malformed larvae and pupae, some sticking out of their cells.
- Small holes in brood cappings, where workers pulled out infested pupae.
- Bees with stubby wings or shrunken abdomens crawling at the entrance.
- The colony weakens quickly or absconds.
How to check
- Uncap brood: with an uncapping fork, lift at least 100 sealed pupae, drone brood first (the mite prefers it), and look for running red-brown mites and whitish young ones on the pupae. This finds it earliest.
- Bump test: shake the bees off a frame of sealed brood, knock one end of the frame hard on the edge of a white tray, turn it and knock again, four times in all, and look for running mites. Quick, but it misses light infestations.
- Sticky board: a sticky sheet under a mesh on the hive floor for up to three days; look through the debris with the magnifier.
An alcohol wash or sugar shake for varroa often misses Tropilaelaps: it spends only a day or two on adult bees and lives in the brood.
Sources
WOAH Terrestrial Manual, chapter 3.2.6 (infestation of honey bees with Tropilaelaps spp.); Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2018/1882 (listed disease, categories D and E); GOV.UK, OVS note of 3 September 2026 (Tropilaelaps mite restrictions: Türkiye); Brandorf et al. 2024 and Janashia et al. 2024 (established populations in Russia and Georgia); ANSES, state of play of March 2025.