WSU Looking For Volunteers To Study Varroa Management

Washington State University is looking for volunteers from across the state to participate in a three year survey focused on varroa management strategies.

“Really the goal of this research is to not only figure out what varroa management strategies people are using in our state, but also how to improve apicultural education," said Bri Price, WSU’s Bee Program Extension Coordinator at the Puyallup Research and Extension Center. "So why I'm wanting to publish this work later on is it serves as a valuable case study as to beekeeper communities and where they're learning this information and then how they're enacting what they're learning in their own colonies. And so that's really the big kind of overall goal.”

Our Honeybees Don't Have The Needed Defenses

Price noted this work will be crucial to understanding one of the greatest issues facing honeybees not only in Washington, but across North America.

“Varroa are ectoparasitic mites," Price said. "They feed on the adults and offspring or brood inside the colony. And while they're feeding, they vector viruses. And so the bees that we have in North America are the Western honeybees. They're not co-evolved with varroa, and so they don't have the same inherent defenses as some other species of honeybees do.”

How To Join The Study

Price said these are the directions to participate:

Step 1: Navigate to this link to read more about the project, consent to participate, enter contact information, and get a unique 4 digit identifier code.

Step 2: Price says it’s important to keep your identifier code! This code will be used to answer three surveys (one in 2026, 2027, & 2028). This will help keep your identity separate from the answers you give but conserve an individual's data over three years.

Step 3: Navigate to the first survey by using this link. Price says it should take less than 20 minutes. Once you complete it, I will send you a cool, uniquely designed magnet from the WSU Bee Program

Step 4: Watch a new open-access 10-part video series about comprehensive Varroa management, titled HIVE PNW (Holistic Integrated Varroa Education for the Pacific Northwest). That video series will be available starting in December 2026.