Hawaii was "blessed" by the presence of varroa "officially" in April 2007. I say "officially" because I believe it has been on Oahu for several years, but 
because we were supposed to be varroa free, no one was looking for it and it managed to get a foot hold.

The big fear is that it will get to the Big Island where the queen rearing companies are at. While I think the BI people are a little concerned about my plight, I 
think their concern is their livelyhood. Reasonable.

It was proposed early on to attempt what New Zealand tried (and failed at) - total eradication of the mites by eradicating the bees, then re-introducing them to 
Oahu. Some of the BI queen rearers support this and "offer" to restock our bees.

Rumor has it that the feds are coming here to seriously contemplate an eradication program with "fines and penalties for non-compliant beekeepers that do 
not surrender their hives". Supposedly there will be a compensation package as well.

Rumor has it that "the national guard and other organizations" will be mobilized to locate all feral colonies. Who destroys them is unclear at this time.

Oahu is 600 sq miles of varying terrain. Prominent are the Koolau and Waianae mountain ranges that provide plenty of inaccessible areas.

My questions are:

1. Has any other US state or territory attempted total eradication? (I believe the answer is going to be no).

2. Is this legal? Can the USDA command us to surrender our hives in an effort to eradicate the mites? What authority gives them this power?

3. Is this even viable? I believe that it is impossible, short of nuking us, to eliminate all bees, let along all mites. If so, the mite will reestablish itself and we'll 
have done all for naught.

4. Did the NZ plan even have a chance?

5. Does it make sense to destroy hives that do no present with mites? What about low mite count hives?

6. Should I care about the queen rearing companies? After all, it's a dog eat dog world and while I sympathize, my livelyhood is honey. Kill my bees, 
especially my best producers and you kill me. The compensation has ranged from $150 to $500 per hive. Our average is 100 lbs per hive and "Lucky we 
live Hawaii!" - I get top dollar, averaging about $8/lb. What is my true loss?

I think this is a "MIssion Impossible" senario. I don't believe it has my best interests in mind, nor will the outcome be any different - we'll still have mites on 
Oahu.

Any comments? Any thoughts?

Howard
Dirt Poor Oahu Bee Farmer

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