On Sun, 10 Nov 1996, Ted Fischer wrote:
 
>   REGARDING           RE>Pitiful Sight Update
>
> Allen Dick wrote:
> >I also gather the original poster in this thread did not actually
> monitor his results until he noticed that the hives had died or
> dwindled and that varroa were everywhere on the remaining bees.  By
> then it was too late.
>
> And... since the amount of fall feed was only 5 quarts per hive --
> if I recall, I would disagree with Andy and say that the syrup
> should not have been the cause of collapse.  It seems to have been
> the failure of the mite treatment.<
>
> I agree with Allen's comments.  Upon rereading the whole thread, it does
> certainly seem to me that the bees died of a typical varroa infestation.  The
> condition of the hives - lots of stored honey and no bees or virtually none -
> is identical to what I experienced a year ago when my Apistan strips didn't
> get on the colonies until mid to late September.  I doubt that the amount of
> feeding had anything to do with the bee demise, nor were they poisoned by the
> essential oils.  Other workers haven't reported such results that would
> indicate poisoning.  On the other hand, observations on the remaining hives
> indicate that great numbers of varroa were still present.
>
> So now the question is why didn't the treatment protect the bees from varroa?
> Some argue that it is because all treatment methods were not used.  I wonder
> if it may not be rather that the treatment was applied to late, after varroa
> got the upper hand.  That is what happened to many of us last year with
> Apistan.  If varroa kills not directly but by acting as a vector for virus (or
> bacterial) disease, perhaps the damage was already done before the treatment
> was applied.
>
 Hello , I would put my money on a virus. I have seen it first hand and
about the time you think everything is normal and the mites are gone , the
hive goes down very fast.We do have researchers working on the problem.
Two places in the US and one that I know about in the UK. Tellie Welsh is
working on antiseriums up in Onterio Canada.This is not a shallow problem.
We do have to control Varroa to slow done the spred of viruses.There maybe
more ways that they are spreding besides Varroa. In the US we have DR.
Hung of the USDA at the BRL working on field identification of honey bee
viruses. This is no easy job. You know what we humans go thru to find out
what virus we have , Dr Hung is doing us a great favor. We would be able
to have the answer to the main question in a short time.
 
 Best Regards
 Roy