Supervising varroa treatment of honey bees with smart sensor systems

Abstract:
The parasite Varroa destructor is a major threat to honey bees that can only be held at bay by conducting regular treatments of the colony with formic acid. However, this practice often fails because an effective concentration of the evaporated acid is determined by varying exterior conditions such as humidity and temperature. Supervising evaporation would optimize the treatment and repurposing modern MOX air quality sensor technology could just make that feasible. In the present work we compare MOX sensor models and empirically investigate their application in bee hives. We propose a prototypical setup as a step toward a smart formic acid treatment system for future hive management and apicultural practice.