Home▸Entomology & Insect Behaviour▸Drone Brood Removal as a Varroa IPM Tool

🐝 Drone Brood Removal as a Varroa IPM Tool

An interactive 3D hive comb showing how Varroa mites preferentially invade drone brood, and how cutting out and destroying capped drone comb on a schedule traps and removes mites from the colony.

Entomology & Insect Behaviour3DModerate60 FPS

A 3D hive comb where Varroa mites concentrate preferentially in larger, longer-capped drone cells; cutting out and destroying that trap comb on a schedule removes a disproportionate share of the colony's mites.

🔬 What It Demonstrates

Mites choose cells based on relative attractiveness and available reproduction time. Drone cells stay capped roughly three days longer than worker cells, so mites entering them produce more daughter mites — concentrating the population where it can be physically removed.

🎮 How to Use

Adjust the drone comb fraction and mite attraction bias to see mites concentrate on the larger comb, set a removal interval, then harvest the trap frame — watch it slide out and the trapped mites disappear from the colony's total load.

💡 Did You Know?

Removal intervals must beat the drone brood capping period (~14–15 days) — wait too long and the trapped mites simply emerge with the drones and rejoin the colony.

⚙ Under the hood

An interactive 3D hive comb showing how Varroa mites preferentially invade drone brood, and how cutting out and destroying capped drone comb on a schedule traps and removes mites from the colony.

beesvarroa mitesdrone broodhive managementipmbeekeepingcolony healthThree.js

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