GM>From: Guy Miller <[log in to unmask]>
  >Date:         Wed, 6 Aug 1997 20:06:22 -0400
  >Subject:      Varroa mites
 
GM>Hands up who loves the varroa mite.
 
GM>I just heard that the varroa mite may be the creature which will keep the
  >Africanized Honey Bee from my neck of the woods.
 
I think you got it mixed up, the AHB seems to have made it to the US
without report of mites of any kind causing any problems with the
bugger. The AHB seems to be more tolerant of all disease, pests, and
predators then the average American bee.
 
  >mites are killing off all the feral bees, they are doing me a great favor in
  >slowing down, or maybe even stopping, the northern journey of the feral AHB.
 
Until I read that Afro bees can eat the tires off of a bee truck I
would not want to say any area of the US has not had them or does not
have them at this time, and as the test for them costs more then the
value of the hive tested I suspect that most really don't want to know
if they have them that bad anyway.
 
As long as good beekeepers continue to do what they have always done in
the past, and that is to replace stock that is not productive, and that
includes stock that attacks the hand that feeds it, I am sure we will
continue to keep our bees. Maybe we will call them some other name then
we use today. One name that keeps popping up is Egyptian and I guess
thats as close to African as one could get without using the word.
Anyway be prepared to see more about the Egyptian bees being found in
those Afro only USDA bee traps that also cost more then a bee hive.
 
ttul, the OLd Drone
 
 
(c) Permission is granted to freely copy this document
in any form, or to print for any use.
 
(w)Opinions are not necessarily facts. Use at own risk.
 
---
 ~ QMPro 1.53 ~ http://194.112.46.22/public/default.htm (Amigabee BBS)