PHIRA-Science

05/06/2026

🐝 Excited to share that I'll be speaking at the CSBA + AHPA Joint Convention 2026 in Reno, Nevada! 🇺🇸

Tropilaelaps mites are one of the biggest emerging threats to honey bees worldwide, and I'll be sharing practical lessons from regions already living with this parasite—covering detection, management, and what beekeepers can do to prepare.

A big thank you to the organisers for the invitation. I'm looking forward to meeting beekeepers from across North America and discussing how we can protect honey bee health together.

📍 Reno, Nevada
📅 16–19 November 2026

The CSBA + AHPA 2026 Joint Convention is bringing together some of the most respected voices in beekeeping, and we're excited to welcome Maggie Gill, founder of PHIRA-Science and an internationally recognized expert on honey bee health and Tropilaelaps mites.

Attendees will gain a deeper understanding of Tropilaelaps biology, detection, management strategies, and what North American beekeepers can learn from regions on the front lines of this emerging threat. With more than 20 years of beekeeping experience and a career dedicated to bridging the gap between research and practical application, Maggie's work is helping shape global preparedness for one of the most significant threats to honey bee health.

📍 Peppermill Resort Spa Casino | Reno, Nevada
📅 November 16-19, 2026

More convention details, session information, and the full schedule will be announced soon. Stay tuned!

29/05/2026

🐝 Beekeeping season is in full swing, and that means now is the time to be checking your colonies for Tropilaelaps mites.

I've been a bit quiet on here recently while carrying out fieldwork, but I've finally had a chance to update the PHIRA-Science website with some of the research we published from last season. One of our recent studies looked at how Tropilaelaps can spread through swarming, highlighting just how easily these mites can move between colonies and areas—even before they have been officially confirmed locally.

📖 Read more about the research here: https://www.phira-science.org/research/tropilaelaps/survival-and-transmission

The key message for beekeepers is simple: don't wait until Tropilaelaps is reported in your area before you start monitoring. Early detection is essential.

In this video, I demonstrate two brood inspection techniques that can be used to detect Tropilaelaps:
🔍 Checking brood with tweezers
🔍 Rapid brood decapping

If you're not familiar with these methods, or would like to learn more about monitoring for Tropilaelaps, the PHIRA-Science website has a range of educational resources and demonstration videos covering different detection techniques.

🎥 Explore the resources here: https://www.phira-science.org/resources

Regular monitoring helps protect your colonies and strengthens our collective ability to detect and respond to emerging pest threats. Please share this post with other beekeepers and encourage them to check their hives this season.

20/05/2026

🐝 Happy World Bee Day from PHIRA-Science 🐝

This year is shaping up to be one of the most exciting and ambitious yet.

Over the coming months, PHIRA-Science will be involved in projects spanning multiple continents - working alongside researchers, commercial beekeepers, development organisations, and industry partners to tackle some of the biggest challenges facing bees and beekeeping today.

From honey bee health and emerging pests, to sustainable beekeeping, climate resilience, and the incredible diversity of honey bee species across the world, there is a huge amount happening behind the scenes.

Some of the work I’m most excited about this year includes:
🐝 advancing practical approaches to colony health
🐝 supporting beekeepers in different production systems around the world
🐝 collaborative international research
🐝 learning from commercial beekeepers operating at scale
🐝 exploring the biology and behaviour of different honey bee species
🐝 contributing to conversations on the future of global apiculture

I can’t share full details of many projects just yet, but I’m looking forward to sharing updates, fieldwork, research insights, and probably a few unexpected bee stories along the way.

Whether you keep 1 colony or 10,000 - thank you for caring about bees.

29/04/2026

Fieldwork comes with its own kind of “colleague”… 🦔

We’ve been deep in the details of research lately. Long days, careful observations, and a lot of time spent at hive entrances tracking what’s happening in the colony. Part of that involves using pan traps to monitor bee mortality… or at least, that’s the plan.

Enter our unexpected visitor: a very determined hedgehog (now known as BP).

Every night, it makes its rounds through the apiary, enthusiastically rearranging our carefully placed traps (science, apparently, is optional). It’s also developed a taste for the brood we’ve been sampling - nothing goes to waste out here. At this point, it feels less like a disturbance and more like we’ve accidentally recruited it as part of the research team.

There was even one memorable morning where we discovered it had left us… a “data point” 💩directly in one of the traps. Not quite the dataset we were aiming for.

Field research isn’t always tidy, but it’s never boring. And sometimes, the smallest (and spikiest) visitors end up being the most entertaining part of the day.

16/04/2026

🐝 BREAKING: New research out today: How well does formic acid really work against Tropilaelaps and Varroa?

We’ve just published field results looking at what happens when you apply formic acid under real beekeeping conditions in summer vs autumn.

Here’s the key message: timing matters more than you might think.

🔬 What we found:

➡️ Tropilaelaps mercedesae
• Rapid, near-complete control in both seasons
• ~100% mortality within ~2.5 days
• Effective across all brood stages

➡️ Varroa destructor
• Much more variable response
• Limited effect in hot, humid summer conditions
• Significantly better control in cooler autumn conditions
• Higher survival in younger brood

⚠️ Why this matters:
• Formic acid is highly effective against Tropilaelaps
• But it does not perform equally well against Varroa
• Environmental conditions (especially temperature and humidity) seem to make a big difference

And one more important point:
👉 Even after near-total knockdown, Tropilaelaps can rebound QUICKLY — so a single treatment isn’t a long-term solution on its own.

🧠 Take-home for beekeepers:
• Use formic acid strategically — not just routinely
• Pay attention to season and conditions
• Think in terms of integrated pest management, not one-off fixes

📄 Our paper just dropped today if you want the full details (and graphs for the data nerds 🤓):
https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1mxzY15DeClqyB

16/04/2026

🐝 BREAKING: New research out today: How well does formic acid really work against Tropilaelaps and Varroa?

We’ve just published field results looking at what happens when you apply formic acid under real beekeeping conditions in summer vs autumn.

Here’s the key message: timing matters more than you might think.

🔬 What we found:

➡️ Tropilaelaps mercedesae
• Rapid, near-complete control in both seasons
• ~100% mortality within ~2.5 days
• Effective across all brood stages

➡️ Varroa destructor
• Much more variable response
• Limited effect in hot, humid summer conditions
• Significantly better control in cooler autumn conditions
• Higher survival in younger brood

⚠️ Why this matters:
• Formic acid is highly effective against Tropilaelaps
• But it does not perform equally well against Varroa
• Environmental conditions (especially temperature and humidity) seem to make a big difference

And one more important point:
👉 Even after near-total knockdown, Tropilaelaps can rebound QUICKLY — so a single treatment isn’t a long-term solution on its own.

🧠 Take-home for beekeepers:
• Use formic acid strategically — not just routinely
• Pay attention to season and conditions
• Think in terms of integrated pest management, not one-off fixes

📄 Our paper just dropped today if you want the full details (and graphs for the data nerds 🤓):
https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1mxzY15DeClqyB

02/04/2026

Tropilaelaps research goes on tour… and apparently so does my alcohol tolerance. 🇸🇰🐝🍷

I’ve been in Slovakia this week speaking about Tropilaelaps at a beekeeping conference in Piešťany, then travelling east towards the Ukrainian and Hungarian borders to meet beekeepers in the region.

The beekeepers here have clearly decided that the best way to discuss parasitic mites is over excellent local wine and brandy… and they have been very committed to this approach. I have, of course, done my best to keep up in the interests of international scientific collaboration.

On a more serious note, it’s been genuinely encouraging to see how interested and engaged Slovakian, Hungarian and Ukrainian beekeepers are about Tropilaelaps. The conversations have been thoughtful, practical, and very forward-thinking — exactly what we need if we’re going to stay ahead of this mite.

Also included in this trip: a visit to the incredible underground wine cellars of the Tokaj region (which are almost as fascinating as bee brood comb… almost).

Here are a few photos from the trip - including the beekeepers I met and some of those amazing cellars. Huge thanks to everyone who welcomed me and made the discussions (and evenings!) so memorable.

27/03/2026

A new blog post featuring PHIRA-Science is now live on The Beelistener 🐝

It talks about Tropilaelaps, why it matters for beekeepers, and why learning from what’s happening in other regions now could make a real difference before the mite arrives here.

PHIRA-Science started because a group of beekeepers wanted to better understand the risks and find practical answers — and it’s encouraging to see the conversation growing.

If you’re interested, have a read here ⬇️
https://www.beelistener.co.uk/international/facing-tropilaelaps-learning-from-the-field-not-assumptions-by-dr-maggie-gill/

As always, thank you to everyone supporting the work and helping spread the word. 🐝

Troplilaelaps specialist Dr. Maggie Gill shares lessons from the field while untangling and clarifying some of

23/03/2026

New discoveries about Tropilaelaps mites ability to spread has major implications for stray swarms and package bee risks! First published by PAm-supported Rogan Tokach and Geoff Williams: even though the mites feed on brood, not adult bees, they do hitch a ride out of the hive on adult bees to disperse: https://bit.ly/4lJjMy9

And a second study by PHIRA-Science with collaborators in Europe and China showed that Tropi can live on adult bees much longer than expected, they leave with a swarm and can live long enough to reproduce in the first brood! This is a huge discovery to understand the risks of Tropi spreading: https://bit.ly/47hPInq

22/03/2026

When beekeepers say “swarms spread things”… we usually mean genetics.

Turns out they can also spread mites 😳

An article in Entomology Today has just featured our research looking at how honey bee swarms may help move Tropilaelaps mites between colonies.

Yes… the bees in this photo look like they’re just hanging out on a vine enjoying life in a vineyard 🍇

But if Tropilaelaps is around, a swarm could be giving a few unwanted passengers a lift to their next home.

It’s something we need to understand better if we want to slow the spread of this mite beyond Asia and protect beekeeping.

If you’re interested in the science behind it, the article explains it nicely (and in fewer graphs than the paper! 😄). Link in comments.

Also take a close-up look at the culprit 👀