tomas mozer wrote:

> Efforts need to be made, however, to further study and understand the active
> and successful defense against small hive beetles by African honey bees, and
> then perhaps to select
> similar attributes in bees in the United States. Such attributes may also
> afford some protection against Varroa."

V.J was first detected August 1997 in Cape Town, South Africa. We have been
living with her since then and even though it is reported that she might have
been with us for two to three years before that, we never detected her. Even in
the area of highest infestation (the peninsula) regular checking pre-08/97 never
revealed her presence.

Photos taken 12/98 show A.m. capensis opening up cell cappings and removing
contaminated drone brood. We have not yet seen capensis biting or carrying V.j.

We are fortunate that capensis has about a 24 hour shorter post-capping perion
than most other races. This should mean no V.j. reproduction in capensis worker
brood. Drones are still the problem though. Our V.j. populations are extremely
cyclical with ups of +14 and then downs of 2 per 100 within weeks.

Due to the fact that capensis is problematic re queen breeding, no selection has
ever been done. This implies that nothing has been bred out of her either (i.e.
hyg)..