There has been some discussion about the possible future use of drone pheromones to act as varroa traps. I wonder what would happen if an artificial pheromone source was inserted inside a working colony. Some considerable care might be needed to avoid disruption of the normal colony operation. A number of related questions come to mind. For example, what is the current understanding of the role of pheromones in determining the number of drones reared in a colony? (There must be some powerful factors at work since small colonies are generally most unlikely to rear drones at all. I have first hand experience of an observation colony that put up queen cells in response to overcrowding, but there were still no, or at best very few, drone cells present.) What is the exact role of drone pheromones in a colony? Is this what guides the workers to feed the grubs and then to seal them in at the correct age? If so would a artificial source interfere with this? Regards -- Mike Rowbottom HARROGATE North Yorkshire HG1 2PY UK