The most feared part of the bee: the stinger, with associated venom sac and accessory glands.

The most serious pest of modern beekeeping is Varroa destructor, an Asian mite that jumped from the eastern hive bee Apis cerana to the western bee Apis mellifera when commercial beekeeping brought the two bee species into contact. The mite causes severe winter losses in heavily infected bee yards. Here, a mite rides on the abdomen of a worker bee.

An adult Varroa mite feeds on the hemolymph of developing bees.