Stress responses of honey bees to organic acid and essential oil treatments againts varroa mites

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Natural medicines such as formic acid, oxalic acid, thymol and menthol have recently been used as alternative treatments against the honey bee parasitic mite varroa. The aim of this study was to observe and examine their impact on Heat Shock Proteins (HSP 70) in the brain tissues of bees. For this purpose, seven different treatment groups were created using various concentrations and administrations of formic and oxalic acid and thymol-menthol mixtures, including positive (untreated) and negative controls. The results showed that in the groups exposed to the varroa treatments, HSP 70 results were lower than those of the non-treated groups. HSP 70 results were lowest in the thymol-menthol mixture exposed group among the treated groups. We conclude that it would be more beneficial to prefer natural medicines against varroa, which lead to lower HSP 70 results which are the molecular determinants of stress.