Home▸Biology▸Breeding Better Bees: The Science Behind Natural Varroa Resistance

🧬 Breeding Better Bees: The Science Behind Natural Varroa Resistance

A 3D honeycomb model where you tune hygienic behaviour, grooming and VSH breeding traits to see how colony genetics suppress a growing Varroa destructor infestation cell by cell.

Biology3DAdvanced60 FPS

A patch of capped brood comb where hygienic behaviour, grooming and Varroa Sensitive Hygiene (VSH) genetics work together against a growing Varroa destructor infestation — tune the traits and watch the mite population index rise or fall.

🔬 What It Demonstrates

Open cells get capped as brood, some picking up a phoretic mite as they seal. Hygienic bees inspect and uncap infested cells before the mite reproduces; VSH suppresses how many viable daughter mites an undetected cell produces; grooming lowers the odds a cell gets infested in the first place.

🎮 How to Use

Pick a colony genetics preset or drag the hygienic behaviour, grooming and VSH sliders yourself. Watch red (infested) cells spread or shrink, and track the mite population index and colony health stats as the comb cycles.

💡 Did You Know?

Breeding programmes like the USDA's VSH line select queens purely for this uncapping-and-removal behaviour — after enough generations of selection, colonies can hold mite loads below damage thresholds without any miticide.

⚙ Under the hood

A 3D honeycomb model where you tune hygienic behaviour, grooming and VSH breeding traits to see how colony genetics suppress a growing Varroa destructor infestation cell by cell.

beesvarroageneticshoneycombcolonybreedingresistanceThree.js

3D · Three.js / WebGL renderer · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install