Bob Harrison writes:
My Italian bees have always had problems dealing with TM.
Treatment once a year costs around fifty cents plus labor.
Left untreated for a couple years they start crashing in
winter. I would rather use my high production Italian
bees and treat than use so called TM resistant strains I
have tried.

Reply:
Geeh, sorry to hear you are still having problems with TM
after all these years. Back in the 1980s, now a good 20
plus years ago, TM was the first mite we got to control
easily by our first regression down in size to 5.0mm -
5.1mm sizing, besides eliminating most of our chalk brood.
With our second regression down in size to 4.9mm top
tolerance we gained control of varroa and the accompanying
foul diseases. 

Hear you are talking about starting to use Small Cell this
year from posts on this site. With luck then, maybe you
will start to gain some control to your problems and not
have to medicate so much. If you ahve problem drawing the
SC foundation out, remember there is HSC now available for
instant regression if need be.

Dee 

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