Bill said:
>> so it makes sense to treat all the crop. You do not want to come
>> back over and over again just to treat each affected area in turn.

Given that we know that hives on the same pallet can show very different
levels of varroa infestation at the same time, is the IPM equivalent of
a "crop in a field" a hive, a pallet, or an entire yard?

I honestly don't know.  The usual IPM models of pest/crop interaction
don't seem to apply well to beekeeping, as some hives are clearly more
infested than others for no apparent reason.  IPM models assume a much
more homogenous dispersal of pests within the "crop" than beekeepers
have among hives.

It shouldn't make sense to treat every hive at any one point in time,
as we know that if we do drop tests on all the hives, some hives will
show us that they don't need treatment.  The problem here is that
the labor cost of monitoring mites for any one hive exceeds the cost
of treatment for that hive.

I've never heard anything even close to the above from anyone involved
in research, even those who talk about an "economic threshold" as if
there was one worked out for beekeepers.  Bottom line, beekeepers are
drowning, and most of the researchers are busy doing research on the
salinity of the water!  ^.^

Bob said:
> Most beekeepers  are pressed for time. They want a "magic bullit".
> A treatment for varroa they can simply drop into a gallon of bee feed and
> be done with all bee parasite & bee disease. Many may laugh but I have heard
> over and over big beekeepers ask the USDA-ARS for the above at meetings!

What's wrong with asking for a cost-effective approach, over and over again,
until someone listens?  A systemic would be exactly that, but systemics are
difficult, and simple miticides are, by comparison, easy.

Bob continued:
> Now all over the U.S. bees are becoming resistant to both the two main
> strips in use. Exactly like when fluvaliante resistant varroa were found
> in the U.S. and tens of thousands of commercial hives started crashing
> beekeepers instead of placing the blame on themselves for not being on top
> of the situation blamed [a long list of stuff]

While alternating treatments certainly is a good idea, lets take Virginia
as a good example.  We can use Apistan against varroa, but CheckMite is
permitted under a Section 18 for use only against small hive beetle.  Funny,
we don't have SHB in VA, and therefore don't need CheckMite for SHB.  (The few
incursions to date were wiped out when they were detected in packages from
producers in the southeastern states.)  From my viewpoint, even the regulators
are being cynical, in that they expect me to "alternate", and in doing so,
to break the law. Ordering CheckMite when I don't have small hive beetle,
and using it against varroa would clearly be breaking the law.  Not that I
ever want to use CheckMite.  I would sooner host a fall solstice bonfire,
and burn every hive than bring an organophosphate anywhere near my farm.

The punch line is that it has only recently been revealed that the EPA is
ready, willing, and able to approve multiple Section 18s for different
substances aimed at the same pest, the exact opposite of what was thought
to be the case.  There is no reason why every state cannot make the entire
suite of available munitions "legal" under Section 18s for use against
varroa.  Right now, I could use CheckMite, and break the law, or I could
get some "gray market" ApiLife-VAR from another beekeeper in a state with
an ApiLife Section 18, which would (all together, now) also be breaking the law.

But strictly speaking, the only treatment that is effective and legal in VA
for varroa is Apistan.  As luck would have it, I have not seen resistance.
Not yet, anyway.  But if I want to avoid creating resistance, I need to
alternate my treatments, which would mean breaking the law.

So what's an ethical person to do?

Bill said:
>> One of the few things I learned from a statistics class was when one
>> fluorescent bulb went out in a factory (at about its normal life), it
>> was more cost efficient to replace them all than just the one,

This is an even worse metaphor for a yard of hives than the "crop in a
field" model.  Lightbulbs have a predictable lifespan, and bulbs in
a factory are clearly subjected to identical use and environment.

> Half the hives in the U.S. were according to records killed by varroa
> between 1987 and 1997. Apistan was around . Why did those beekeepers sit and
> wait for hives to crash before taking action?

Because beekeepers have never taken action until they took significant losses.
Don't ask me why - there are certainly enough workshops about pests and
diseases.
Of course, sitting in workshops doesn't make you a beekeeper any more than
sitting
in a garage makes you a car.


   jim  ("We must get tough with the suicide bombers." - George W. Bush
         "How, when they blow themselves up as step one?"  - Me )

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