Lisa Marie Burley writes:

>  The most alarming findings regarding the use of
miticides have been the effects on the reproductive physiology of queens and
drones.

Nothing new here.

 However the effect on the colony (other than the above) has been found to
be very slight.

All of us wish we did not need to ever place a mitacide in a bee hive! Also
treating hives for mites is a very expensive proposition!

 I am not saying there are no effects but most  beekeepers (especially
commercial beeks) found using a mitacide to control mites with a *slight*
effect on the bees was better than letting the mites kill the hive.

When all options are looked at most beekeepers which make a living from bees
see killing off a percent of those nasty little blood suckers (varroa) was
needed to stay in business.

The others?

Most went bankrupt using the do not treat and breed from survivors formula.

I have always supported those bee breeders which look for the survivor bee
such as my good friend Dann Purvis. However the task *in my opinion* is best
left to breeders like Dann Purvis, Marla Spivak, Sue Cobey and others.

Most commercial beekeepers buy their queens and cells but also raise a
percent.

News Flash!
The good news is in Gainesville, Florida as a lure for varroa has beeen 
found
and a trap being designed and tested. Reports are 50% of the varroa in the
hive (not in cells)  end up in the trap.  Beekeeping for the 21st. century
instead of looking for answers to today's complex beekeeping problems in
outdated literature. We asked the USDA-ARS for such a trap two decades ago
and they produced!

bob

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