I have been reading with interest about mites, bees etc. My recent research
about to be published is on the effectiveness of veg. oil (eg. Crisco) patties
and mites. We found significatn control if the patties were present all the
time in the colony; mite levles went down to 2-10 % (tracheal mites).
 
Some work has been done by Keith Delaplane and Nick Calderone on varroa mites
too, using a variety of oil that seem to be effective vs. these mites. All will
be published soon as well.
 
Two things to think about: 1. bee resistance. Granted, some bees appear to be
able to live with mites or are not affected by them as much (we found this in
our control hives using all Carniolan queens from a closed population). A great
variation between hives. BUT... bees have 16 chromosomes (2n=32) and mites have
2 chromsomes (2n=4) for TM and n=7 (2n=14) for VM. Since we don't even the what
the resistance factors are, they are NOT mutually inclusive (a TM resist. bee
is not going to be VM resist), how can we breed for it?
     2. Since the mite genome is much simpler, doesn't it make more sense that
it is changing, becoming less virulent and more tolerated by bees? (Im speaking
of TM now). Why not breed less vir. VM. We seem to be going at it at the wrong
end.
 
Ohio State is having a bee mite meeting at the IX international congress this
summer. for more information contact Cal Welborn. Dates: July 17-22, contact
OSU Acarology Congress, 1315 Kinnear ROad, Columbus, OH 43212; 614 292 7180
phone, 292 7774 fax. Sorry, I don't have the email number handy; will get it.
 
Good luck and hope your bees stay healthy this year.
 
Diana Sammataro