Bob said: 

>> Both fluvaliante and coumaphos are worthless 
>> against varroa in most areas 

Stan said: 

> I put one Apistan strip in each hive to clean 
> up and had very good success. 

Both Apistan and Checkmite still sell very well.  
If these products did not control varroa, they 
would not continue sell, and beekeepers would be 
posting angry comments about "defective" strips, 
about losing treated hives in large numbers.

The emergence of "fluvalinate resistant varroa" was 
a direct result of the illegal use of fluvalinate 
in forms not intended for bees, and the misuse of 
pesticides in general.  I made a very fine living 
from nothing but bees for more than a decade, and 
somehow, I avoided resorting to Checkmite.  
Amazingly enough, beekeepers who did not abuse 
miticides still can get good results even from 
Apistan, which is why it still sells so well.  
Yes, many of these customers are hobbyists, as
they tend to not try to save a few pennies per 
hive by brewing their own miticides, as they
have far fewer hives.

And yes, it is true that hobby beekeepers have not 
seen as much "resistant varroa" as the undercapitalized 
"Mom & Pop Migratories", and the difference is the hole 
that was dug by the smaller and mid-sized migratories 
with the over-use of each miticide that has come along.

(This is not the "Pesticide Treadmill", it is the 
"Do-It-Yourself Hand-dug Grave".) 

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