A recent review in the Journal of Apicultural Research offers thoughts on research needed to achieve sustainable control of Varroa destructor (Dietemann et al., 2012). [In it] the authors state that we are "not close to any such sustainable solutions". We disagree with this negative characterization of the status of honey bees with genetically based mite resistance.

A criticism is that bees exhibiting hygiene do not represent a sustainable solution to varroa. Potential problems with sustainability over time may be thought to be of two sorts: maintenance of mite resistance itself, and decreasing genetic diversity. Regarding varroa resistance itself, there are beekeepers who have kept resistant bees (VSH and Russian) without the use of acaricides for up to a decade.

Honey bee strains that are resistant to varroa are a valuable resource that beekeepers are using successfully. Although these bees have not completely solved the problem, we are in fact moving toward the ideal of sustainable varroa control described by Dietemann et al. (2012).

Comments on: "Varroa destructor: research avenues towards sustainable control"
Robert G Danka, Thomas E Rinderer, Marla Spivak and John Kefuss
Journal of Apicultural Research 52(2): 69-71 (2013) 

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Note: you read this often in these defenses of breeding programs. Beekeepers have kept bees for years without using miticides. Yet no evidence is ever given. Who are these beekeepers? What is the mortality rate? 

Say they are losing 50-70% of their bees every year and splitting the next spring. The summer numbers can be maintained but is that really what we are aiming for? Rebuilding the whole outfit every year by making four colonies from every survivor?

As far as moving toward the ideal, you can move toward an ideal for eons, and never reach it. 

PLB

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