hi all !
 
First off, I found the lines quoted below under the subject header of
"Varroa resistance",while it seems an entirely different kind of resistance has
been
dragged into the discussion now( original subject was resistance of bees
against mites; today's new subject is resistance of mites against fluvalinate
etc. )
 
 >>end up, as in Italy, with Varroa immune to Apistan.
 
 > I don't believe this has been proven.  I have not seen
 > anything
 > definitive on this.  As far as I know, its still in
 > the "rummor"
 > stage. There have been some nebulous "reports" out of
 > northern
 > Italy (highly suspect) which have not been
 > scientifically verified.
 
This is what I believed as wel, until I read the article
'Apistanresistente Varroa Milben auch in Suedtirol'
(Heinrich Gufler und Dr. Klaus Wallner: Deutsches Bienen journal 5/95, pp.
37-38).
In this article a prof. N.Milani of the university of Udine is quoted about
fluvalinate resistance in V. Mites causing heavy colony losses in Sicily and
Lombardy 2 years ago.
Since then this resistance has spread over large areas in Italy.
In north Italy ( the region referred to as 'SuedTirol', since the time it was
part of Tirol, a german speaking part of Austria), Apistan has been used since
1988, and resistant mites were found beginning 1994 in the region of Merano.
During a test it was found that Apistan showed only an efficiency of 60% there,
while 95% was found at a similar test in Austria.
 
A second result of these investigations was, that re-used Apistanstrips still
contained a lot of fluvalinate( as measured by gaschromatography of solutions
obtained from the surface of the strips). For further details I have to refer
to the oroginal article. Adresses of the authors:
 
Heinrich Gufler,
Landwirtschaftsschule "Mair am Hof"
I-39031 Dietenheim-Bruneck
 
Dr. Klaus Wallner
Landesanstalt fuer Bienenkunde
der Universitaet Hohenheim
D-70593 Stuttgart
 
 
 
Hope this cleared up a few things
 
sincerely, Hugo
 
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 > Additionally, in Europe, they have a product other
 > than
 > Apistan that is approved for use in controlling
 > Varroa.  The
 > product is called Bayvarol Strips with an active
 > ingredient of
 > Flumethrin (different from Fluvalinate).  My
 > understanding is
 > that Bayvarol Strips (while not cheap) are less
 > expensive than
 > Apistan in Europe.  This of course leds one to
 > question why
 > the Apistan product would have been used to begin
 > with?  With
 > two available products to choose from; rotating
 > between the two
 > would considerably increase the time required to
 > develop resistance.
 
 > Can someone shed some definitive light on the reported
 > Fluvalinate
 > resistance of the Varroa mite in Italy?
 
 > BusyKnight
 > Dallas, TX
 > BusyKnight
 > [log in to unmask]
 > ICBM INcode:N:32.45'W:96.45'
 > Dallas, Republic of Texas
 > Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but
 > certainty is an absurd one. - Voltaire
 
 > --- GIGO+ sn 272 at iwg vsn 0.99.950801