On Sun, 16 Mar 2008 09:51:32 -0700, JDP <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>"We have heard it all before, it's the same thing over and over again"

Actually, the information I supplied was from a textbook on South
African Beekeeping and Mike Allsopp's Master's Thesis. I doubt very
seriously if very many of our readers have "heard it before". I have
worked tirelessly to provide balanced, unbiased information which is
based on hard science and utterly lacking any faith-based dogmatism.

In South Africa they have always had small bees and use special small
cell foundation. The
bees will not accept US sized foundation.  When varroa first arrived,
they thrived in the colonies with small cells, reaching levels of 50%
or 30,000 mites in a large colony. Hundreds of thousands of colonies
died.

>  In periods of initial exposure to the mite, the "front" of the spread of varroa, mite populations built up extremely rapidly in the honeybee colonies of South Africa, even dramatically. As many as 50 000 mites were found in commercial colonies, and average mite numbers of more than 10 000 per colony were found. This initial surge in mite population growth was accompanied by all the classic symptoms of varroa mite damage (scattered brood pattern; bees with vestigial wings; large amounts of chalkbrood; "disappearing" colonies), and it appeared that the pattern being followed was similar to that witnessed elsewhere. During this initial stage, colony decline and mortality was not unusual, and *entire apiaries were lost* to what was demonstrably varroa damage, to the extent that many commercial beekeepers quickly turned to varroacide treatments to protect their colonies.

-- 
Peter L. Borst
Danby, NY USA
42.35, -76.50
http://picasaweb.google.com/peterlborst

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