Tim Vaughan wrote: >If you have an apiary of 10 hives, and 2 show
lots of Varroa, and 8 show little, I would treat the whole apiary.
Treating only the two typically would require more treatments in the long
run<
This is so important an issue that I hope expert medicos will put us right
on it and that Max Watkins of Vita will correct any mis-statement below.
In UK,  we have understood that every single time u use a chemical
accaricide, u move one step nearer to resistance. That is because the
surviving 2 % mites contain ALL those on the path to developing resistance
through natural mutation and the 2% is now 100% of the mite left in that
hive. So next time it needs treating, the whole lot have whatever degree of
resistance has been developed.  Then you filter out the vulnerable once
again, leaving the most resistant - and so on until finally , at some time,
the bees have developed full resistance.   It is apparently inevitable - the
only question is how long the process will take.  The fewer times the
chemical is used, the longer the overall period the chemical will be
effective.  The more times an alternative is interleaved with regular use of
the chemical, the longer the time before resistance is commonplace.
Treating 10 hives when only 2 need it accelerates the process 5 times.  Do
we want accaricides to last for the next one thousand years or only a decade
or two?
If you treat only when needed, there should be no re-infestation if all
hives are regularly monitored.
I say again that by this time (it is over 10 years since Varooa first hit
UK) all hives should be made with open mesh floors as standard.  Sticky pads
are fiddly and get stuck to everything as well as Varooa, and require the
beekeeper to keep making or getting new sheets.  A wipe-clean tray under a
screen needs no maintenance and is ready for use at any time, which makes
monitoring practical.  But the catalogue of the UK's largest supplier still
show the hives on page 4 and the optional extra of a mesh floor as far back
as page 13.  Replacement floors incorporating mesh are as far back as page
36.  Is this the same in other countries?
Robin Dartington

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