a mr borst snip...

What on earth could be more simple than this? A sudden influx of mites in late summer = failing colonies in the neighborhood. The only thing simpler would be "spontaneous generation." Pretty sure that Occam disallowed magical explanations.

The only way to confirm such an effect would be to have universal bee inspection; track which colonies are treated, which are not; and map the impact over time of this particular dynamic. The obstacles for such a study seem insurmountable.

my comments...
first thanks for the reference in a couple of your post.  sadly none of these do I have access to actually discern if they are based on evidence or are simply opinion.  at least one is stated in the title as 'opinion'.

the second sentence above seem to agree with my own 'opinion' that any real experiment to discern if this phenomena in the real world actually exist or not is likely not doable.  I did find it interesting that one snip from one of your sources Mr Borst stated that varroa was only accepted in hive with an existing high varroa infestation rate.  however determining exactly where that particular varroa originated for would casually appear to me to be impossible.  

it would also appear to me that hive density is a good part of this problem.... if it does exist.  other things to consider beyond 'magical explanations' are 1) you are encountering the inevitable problem of a large error term in whatever mite monitoring method you are using and 2) what ever you are using for controlling varroa is now at least partially ineffective.  given the gossip I hear from folks (all commercial I might add) #2 and especially the use of beekeeper mixed remedies (with products that are entirely off label) 'could be' a goodly portion of this problem.

what I do find offensive in these sort of conversation is that rather than looking at the real cause(s) of such a problem quite often the accusations seem to be towards others (with absolutely no knowledge of what they are or are not doing) when a significant portion of the problem (if it exist) may be a bit closer to home.  Blaming others does seem to be quite fashionable no matter what the season.   

is it really surprising in those parts of the world where beekeepers do not have the resources to constantly intervene (either thru manipulation or 'remedies') that varroa is now less of a problem?  and if we didn't have this problem here what in the world would we have to talks about?  

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