Kim writes, in reference to James' post:

>>...despite much pontification and endless impotent half-solutions, we still
do not have any repeatable, consistently viable control for varroa...
 As Jim says....is exactly what Johnathan Lundgren said in his most recent
podcast with betterbeekeepingtoday's Jeff Ott....>>

I am always amazed that when an easy, quick answer to a thorny biological challenge is not available, so many humans step up to fill the void with copious amounts of speculative, self-aggrandizing snake oil. 

Leaving aside the virtues of swilling/injecting disinfectant, the treatment free movement, which likes to brand itself as "better beekeeping", "natural beekeeping", "ethical beekeeping" (that's my personal favourite), "Darwinian beekeeping" (??), simply promotes and capitalizes on an anger and distrust of hard science and beekeeping regulatory agencies for failing to provide a quick and certain remedy for Varroa mites.

I get the anger, but I see many useful tools appearing now on the horizon. Tools that we simply didn't have in the early days of the Varroa infestation. Gene silencing, gene editing, new and non toxic miticides to tide us over until the gene work (on mites, not bees) finds a way to eradicate these pests. Bee science is catching up with the Varroa, in spite of being starved for funding.

As Jim said, good peer-reviewed science is the worst tool of all...except for all the others. It will get us there, but the timeline is uncertain. Friggles, we didn't even know what Varroa fed on until two years ago!

Meanwhile, as I have said before,  this is no time to throw in the towel and let Mother Nature have her way. 

Keeping the faith,
Janet

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html