The title and headlines are a bit misleading and in my view imprecise.  Beyond the catchy buzzwords, the really important comparison is between two groups of colonies in which varroa was actively controlled against a group in which it was not.  Surviving colonies in the "chemical free" group had significantly higher mites on average than surviving colonies in the treated group.  And survival was dramatically different between the groups in which varroa was actively controlled and stayed lower than in the one with no active control of varroa.  Throwing colonies of no known resistance to the wolves leads to mostly dead colonies.  Anyone surprised?

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