Colony Collapse Disorder, a phenomenon where entire bee colonies abruptly fail, has plagued the United States for the past twenty years. Beginning in the early 1990s, beekeepers began noticing the decimation of hives across the country, with the loss of 4 million hives. But now help has come from Russia: the Russian honeybee, a mite-resistant species that could help boost colony populations.

The Varroa destructor, a parasitic mite, is believed to have greatly reduced bee colonies. While CCD has been attributed to a wide variety of causes including pesticides and changes in the Earth’s magnetism, there is some evidence that the mite was responsible for the drastic bee population decline.

European bees are highly susceptible to the mite. In the mid-’90s, the number of hives dropped from 6 million to 2 million in just a few years. It’s thought that the Varroa mite traveled from Asia to the U.S. as a stowaway onboard a bee shipment, and it quickly spread all over the country.

To combat the mite, beekeepers began using stronger pesticides. But when the mites became resistant to the pesticides, the effects were disastrous. Many beekeepers went out of business, declaring bankruptcy due to low production.

According to beekeeper Dan Conlon of Warm Colors Apiary in Deerfield, MA, “That period changed beekeeping forever. The U.S. used to be a surplus producer of honey, but now we import almost 70 percent of it.”

But new hope has stemmed from the introduction of the Russian honeybee, which appears to be mite-resistant. The Russian bees are from the same region as the Varroa mites and have developed a behavioral adaptation that eliminates the mites: grooming.

Russian honeybees groom each other, picking off the mites and throwing them out of the hives. It’s a behavior not demonstrated by European honeybees.

“In nature, a lot of these mechanisms appear over long periods of time, and some have these abilities that help them survive,” Condon said. “It’s probably the best solution yet, it’s very exciting. They’re hardier bees. Eventually there won’t be any treatment necessary.”

Condon and other scientists, researchers, and academics in the field hope that breeding Russian honeybees with European ones will help create a hybrid line resistant to the mites. This should hopefully prevent Colony Collapse Disorder from reoccurring by speeding up natural selection in the honeybee population.