ES<>From: Edward Sterling <[log in to unmask]>
  <>Date:         Wed, 17 May 1995 09:32:05 -0400
  <>Subject:      Re: Varroa Treatments
 
ES<>Mark recently said:
  <>>The other treatment is a heat treating apparatus sold by Better Way (the
ES<>That's interesting. Most comments on this list seem to indicate varroa
  <>take their toll in the off-season. Though perhaps present at all times of
 
 
Hello Ed and fellow keepers of bees,
 
   NO one knows the answer to the US varroa problem other then that
those who use the strips as recommended seem to be having a high degree
of success.
 
   There is always going to be the exception and I think I see more
reports from beekeepers who say they are using the strips according to
the directions and still having hives die out.
 
   The problem as I see it right now is two fold, almost everyone is
using the strips so no one really knows what the losses would be if
they were not. And having local unexplained losses of bee's was a
common occurrence prior to the introduction of any mite, so if a
beekeeper who was using strips had a loss there is really no way to tell
if the strips failed or the loss was from some cause other then varroa.
And the same can be said by the few who for what ever reason have not
used any chemical control at all and have their hives die. We are
checkmated or polarized by our own lack of knowledge.
 
   As for how the bees that are not treated die, I can say from my
own observations of untreated hives that if your bees have varroa and if
anything reduces the population of bees in the hive the last bees that
die will almost all have varroa mites on their bodies. I can't say the
varroa killed them, but it sure does not benefit them. Most others will
say without any hesitation the varroa is killing them and who is to say
they are wrong as it can't be demonstrated one way or another. But it
can be demonstrated that beekeepers who treat for mites are not losing
bees, so they say.
 
?What I can't get clear in my own mind after observing the loss of
100% of all the untreated hives in several yards of over 100 hives is
how the mites could effect all the hives the same at the same time.?
 
A few years ago I picked up an abandoned white kitten in one of my bee
yards, it was slowly starving to death as it was still on milk. You
would not believe how many flea's that kitten had. I used a heavy duty
flea spray and it turned completely red from the blood covering the flea
bites. If that cat had died, and I am sure it would have, it could be
easy to say the fleas killed it. But I know that the fleas were the result
of the cat's poor nutrition and environment and the cat was starving to
death.
 
Yet for most beekeeper when a beehive dies and it has mites it dies from
some mite?
 
   Until I read that some area of the world that once had great
losses of bees from varroa and is no longer having those losses without
treatments then I must assume that the varroa is here to stay and will
have to be treated, and the feral population of bees will continue its
reported dramatic decline. And even then judging from the use of other
chemicals in the hive for AFB, I would not expect beekeepers who are
now using mite strips to stop using them without some other treatment
developed without chemicals.
 
   At the same time I know that there are places in the world that are
very productive for honey bees and have had varroa for many years and
the beekeepers do not treat. Maybe they have bees that are different,
or maybe there are other factors we have yet learned to measure. Or
maybe we are suffering from the lack of communication between
beekeepers. I would like to hear more on what is going on with varroa
in Eastern Europe, and South America, as to losses, and treatments or
no treatments.
                        ttul Andy-