Greetings

A new report in the American Bee Journal seems to indicate that climate may have a very important role to play in the levels of varroa infestation in honey bees. Africanized colonies from south Texas were compared to non-Aricanized bees from Louisiana.

The AHB colonies were *not* significantly better at keeping varroa populations down, despite reports of them being able to do so in Mexico. Furthermore, they mention that AHB populations in Brazil had higher levels of infestation in cooler regions.

The climate/weather connection has not been explored, but it should be kept in mind by those of us living and working in cool summer regions. What may be a viable approach in hot regions may not work for us. This may also account for rising and falling varroa levels as observed by many of us.

pb

see ABJ, February 2001