> I maintain the "natural" advocates are the villains breeding the "super-Varroa". Small cell is advocated because it supposedly shortens the gestation time of the bee larvae by a day. Doesn't that argue that Varroa co-evolution will quickly produce a mite with a shorter generation time. Small-cell (in this thought experiment) is creating a monster race of Varroa with a 20% greater reproductive potential.
By that logic, are the drone-cullers (myself included) going to unintentionally create a breed of varroa that will start to preferentially attack workers instead? Taken to its natural conclusion, that logic seems to imply that no treatments should ever be attempted since every treatment could lead sooner or later to a 'super-parasite' that's not susceptible. Yet that logic can't be right. Something's missing.
On a completely separate note, that paragraph raised a question that's always bugged me about the small-cell program. What size are the drone cells in a small-cell operation? What foundation do you use to force them to raise smaller drones?
Mike Rossander
***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html
