Apologies for late joining in--on the road.

Christina, high mite pops in isolated feral hives was the norm when varroa
first invaded.  Still common for me to see high levels in isolated hives.

> If the real problem is viruses it seems to me it is not in varroas best
interest to vector viruses.

Actually, Dick, in the situation of managed apiaries, it is clearly in
varroa's best interest to vector viruses.  The most successful mites are
those that are able to spread to the replacement colonies created by the
beekeeper.  And the easiest way for them to spread is by killing the colony
in which they exist--thus creating a robbing situation.

This ;would be a very successful strategy for a parasite so long as there
was high host density.  And we beekeepers maintain that high host density.
So what we help to create is a relationship where there is natural
selection for combinations of viruses and varroa that kill the colony at a
time of the season when bees will actively rob.

As Ingemar Fries pointed out, the situation would be very different in
areas in which the death of the colony occurred during the cold winter.

-- 
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

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