Background: Honey bees are one of the most important and efficient insect pollinators of food crops on earth providing honey, bee wax, bee pollen, royal jelly, propolis, etc. Varroa destructor is the most obnoxious pest of honey bees infliciting damage to the colony vis-&agrave;-vis transmitting viral diseases. The repeated use of synthetic acaricidal treatment results in developing resistance against varroa mite followed by residue hazards in bee products. This leads to an urgent need to develop alternate eco-friendly methods to manage the pest. 
 
Methods: The experiment was designed to evaluate the relative efficiency of six botanical extracts viz. Sweet basil (Ocimum basilicum L.), Turmeric (Curcuma longa L.), Coleus (Coleus aromaticus), Sweet flag (Acorus calamus L.), Tulsi (Ocimum sanctum L.) and Goat weed (Ageratun conezoides L.) against Varroa mite (Varroa destructor) under laboratory conditions. After preliminary dose-setting experiments, mites and honeybees were exposed to 2% ethanol extracts of the plants, with 24 hours&rsquo; exposure time. 
 
Result: 2% concentration of Coleus, Sweet flag and Tulsi registered cent percent mortality of mites within 24 hours after treatment followed by Turmeric (93.33%), Sweet basil (86.67%) and Goat weed (80%). All the extracts exhibited &lt; 30% mortality of honey bees (Apis cerana indica) whereas turmeric showed the lowest efficiency (14.29%).

Laboratory Evaluation of Some Botanicals against the Honey Bee Ectoparasitic Mite Varroa Destructor (Acari: Varroidae) and its Impact on Honey Bees (Apis cerana indica)

<div>Background: Geographical and botanical origins of honeys are determined by melissopalynological analysis. Pollen contents of 12 autumn honeys collected from Indian honey bee, Apis cerana F. hives located in different localities of Kullu hills of Himachal Pradesh were analysed. Kullu hills having varied geography, climatic condition with diversified and rich flora is ideal for apiculture. So, it is of utmost importance to study the floral richness of the area and preferences of honey bees for nectar and pollen in order to obtain maximum production of a good quality of honey. Thus, the present work was carried out to determine the critical analysis of honey samples and to identify the different pollen types which are major plant sources that contribute to the increase of yield of honey. 
 
Methods: Melissopalynological studies were conducted between 2009 to 2012. Reference pollen slides of honey samples were prepared and identified. Quantative analysis is done with the help of a haemocytometer and pollen spectra, absolute pollen count as well as percentage of pollen types were calculated. Reference slides were also prepared. 
 
Result: Microscopic analysis yielded that in honey samples, 5 pollen types were present as predominant; 17 were secondary, while, 38 were important minor and minor pollen sources. Out of 12 honey samples analysed, 5 were unifloral, whereas, 7 were multifloral. In the unifloral honeys, the predominant sporomorphs were: Prunus cerasoides, Eriobotrya japonica, Prinsepia utilis, Plectranthus sp. and Solidago sp. Forty four pollen types were necteriferous, while, 6 were nectarless represented by Cannabis sativa, Juglans regia, Rumex nepalensis, Polygonum sp. and Zea mays. Among different plant families, Lamiaceae (8), Asteraceae (7), Rosaceae (7), Fabaceae (4), Polygonaceae (3) and Apiaceae (2) highly contributed for nectar and pollen sources of honey bee. Twenty five botanical families with 50 different pollen taxa were identified indicating the various plants visited by honeybees and the sources of nectar used in the production of honey. The high concentration and diversity of pollen types showed that the samples were of botanical origin.</div>

Laboratory Evaluation of Some Botanicals against the Honey Bee Ectoparasitic Mite Varroa Destructor (Acari: Varroidae) and its Impact on Honey Bees (Apis cerana indica)

Melissopalynological Determination of Pollen Density and Botanical Origin of Autumn Honeys of Kullu Hills, Himachal Pradesh, India