I will attempt to answer Fr. Cassidy's question concerning the
migration of Varroa jacobsoni to the western world BASED ON MEMORY, as I
do not have texts here in my office.  DISCLAIMER: MY MEMORY HAS BEEN
KNOWN TO BE FAULTY!!!  What I am about to say is close to the mark, but
by no means should be taken as undisputed fact.  For the real
information go to _New_Perspectives_on_Varroa_ which is available from
IBRA.
 
Varroa jacobsoni was originally a parasite whose host was Apis cerana
(the Asian honeybee).  The pupae stage of Apis c. is a few days
(one or two? two or three?) shorter than that of Apis mellifera, and it
is the shorter pupae stage that keeps Varroa in check in colonies of
Apis cerana.  Varroa doesn't have as much time to mature and reproduce
within a capped cell of Apis c. and hence is not as damaging to Apis c
as Apis m.  With the few extra days of incubation in Apis m. the Varroa
mites reach maturity and reproduce within a cell before the bee emerges,
hence the scales are tipped in favor of the mites within a colony of
Apis m.
 
Enter migratory beekeepers, who imported hives of Apis m. into Varroa's
indigenous area.  Unbeknownst to the beekeepers, varroa got a foothold
in the imported hives and hitched a ride back to from whence they came
(I believe Russia).  Again note how bad my memory is here!  I mean, Asia
is the largest continent in the world and the former Soviet Union was
the largest conglomerate(?) and Russia remains the largest country and a
subset of Asia, so this description is poor at best.  But I believe the
migration continued to the eastern Soviet Union, so the mites made it to
Europe.  I'm not sure how the mites made it from Europe to the States
(perhaps they cashed in their frequent flyer miles), but I would guess
that it was the same sort of mechanism (imported on the backs of bees).
I will not even attempt to add dates to this sophomoric post, other than
to say that Varroa was first documented in the States in early/mid 1980s
and first documented in my hives in 1989 (I am only positive of this
last fact).  To the best of my knowledge, varroa is now endemic
throughout the continental world with the exception of islands (Hawaii
and New Zealand) to name two.  I'm not sure about Australia or Iceland
or Madagascar or ....
 
Anyway, that's my comic book version of the migration of varroa and a
strong case for a good text versus a bad post.  The few pieces of fact
can serve as starting points for research to confirm.  I will mail a 12
oz jar of honey anywhere in the world to the person who can identify
the most errors in the post above with documented references to the
correct facts.  Perhaps THAT will bring science back to this forum!
 
Aaron Morris
Having fun with this list!
Hobby beekeeper in upstate New York (21 miles north of Albany)
Vice President, Southern Adirondack Beekeepers' Association