> the discussion that is meant to take place on this list

Actually, if you followed it from the beginning, someone made the outlandish statement that varroa mites possibly groom bees. And I introduced the analogy of ticks. Mites and ticks are closely related arachnid parasites of many species of animals including bees, birds, and people. 

In order to understand what mites are doing to bees, it seemed useful to draw a comparison with what ticks really do to people. The can be very annoying, especially when lodged in sensitive areas, like up under the tergites. But beyond that, mites and ticks vector very serious pathogens, both to bees and to humans. 

So, to compare, a colony with mites may be suffering from severe immune compromise, much as a person with Lyme disease or another of the tick borne illnesses. Of course, there is a limit to which we can use comparisons between bees and humans, since they are structurally extremely different, and yet in this case, the similarities seemed worthwhile to explore.

PLB

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