Some facts we know in Maine, during this mystery.

1. It has not occurred in Maine even though over 65,000 colonies came into Maine.
2. It has been reported by some of those operations well after leaving Maine. At least one of those operations 
had heavy Varroa loads and was told that they would lose their bees. They did.
3. 10% of the colonies were inspected at random or about 6,000 colonies.
4. Bees were sampled from 42 migratory beekeepers for Tracheal mites. 307 samples with 33 bees/sample were taken 
and 35% were positive for Tracheal. Eight operations had damaging levels of Tracheal mites in their samples. 
Infection levels were as high as 94%.
5. One operation that came to Maine was tested for nosema and high nosema loads were found.

It is interesting that Ari said to someone who reported CCD losses:

> I sugested taking bee samples to a bee lab. The few remaining bees were 
> heavily infested with acarapis mites. So that was the case. I would not 
> recommend anyone stating CCD without looking the remaining bees  with a 
> microscope for heavy nosema or acarapis.
> 
> Ari Seppälä
> Finland

For those who are not familiar with Tracheal or acarapis mites, they did a job on the US beekeeping industry 
back in the late 80s and early 90s. Reports of 80% losses were reported. Last year we had several overwintering 
operations in Maine report heavy CCD losses but it was Tracheal.

I agree that CCD is a mystery, but the kind of Tracheal, Varroa mite, and nosema loads in the commercial 
operations coming into Maine indicate that they are being ignored by those same beekeepers as a cause of colony 
collapse since CCD can be blamed. That certainly was the case here until it was pointed out to the beekeeper 
just what the problem was.

We did suffer large losses many years ago from the nosema and Tracheal dynamic duo. Add Varroa and it is no 
wonder we are losing bees.

What will be interesting is if some do breed from survivors, which is exactly what was done with tracheal way 
back when. From the reports I have seen, CCD is not on the increase but has declined from last year. That tracks 
nicely with what we experienced with tracheal mites and promptly forgot them as a problem.

Bill Truesdell
Bath, Maine

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