I took Randy's comment on swarms to be universal, that new colonies outside
the control of a beekeeper will lead to potential varroa bombs- commercial
or hobby.

There is a bomb that comes from commercial swarms that may semi isolated
but a bomb none the less, and that is the introduction of new problems in
an area that did not have the and those issues spread throughout the area.

Every year we in Maine have about 70K colonies come into the state to
pollinate blueberries. Many stay around and pollinate other crops like
raspberries and cranberries. So their swarms have been the places where we
first saw Varroa and their accompanied viruses. It did not take long to
spread throughout the State. So if the Commercial beekeepers have them so
will we in short order.

Even with that, Maine has always bee open to commercial pollinators mainly
because of its exceptional State Apiarist who managed the issue and helped
hobby beekeepers adjust. The tide would roll in no matter what so why not
get it over with quickly.

As far as the management of Varroa by hobby beekeepers, I have no issue
with the fact that they are more responsible for Varroa bombs harming local
beekeepers than commercial beekeepers, but only because of dispersal. I
have seen many commercial outfits when I tagged along with Tony on the
Blueberry barrens and they showed me I was not as bad a beekeeper as I
thought. So if you took those operations and spread them out, they would
rival the hobby beekeepers through force of numbers.

Bill Truesdell
Bath, Maine

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