The honeybee is a familiar insect. As kids, we had to be careful where we walked with bare feet for fear of stepping on a honeybee.

The resultant sting was certainly enough to get our attention. Today, you can walk barefoot with regularity and really not have to worry about a bee sting.

There are several factors for the decline of the honeybee. The Varroa mite is a small mite that tends to live on adult bees and on the larval stage of the bee.

The Varroa mite is considered the most serious pest of honeybee colonies worldwide. First detected in North Carolina in 1990, the Varroa mite has eliminated nearly all of the wild honeybee population.

In managed hives, beekeepers have seen a drop in hive numbers from 30 percent to 45 percent, just to this one pest.