>How soon do you imagine we might see something?
RNAi may be an impressive technology but there is a very long way to go to solve the problems of continuous delivery to the mite. Remember that the mite's favourite food is bee haemolymph.
We currently have things (cheap, readily available things) we can put in hives to control the mite and I don't see that RNAi significantly adds to that. It is quite likely to suffer from the same issues as antibiotics and many chemical treatments - a need for effective delivery (much harder for RNAi) and a tendency to become ineffective over time (not certain for RNAi but a distinct possibility). I'm not ruling out a role for RNAi, I just don't have the same optimism about this.
If we want Varroa to be the minor irritant that acarine, chalkbrood and a long list of bee pathogens have become, then we need to breed better resistant bees.
Gavin
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