When I raised the question of "Rothamstaed... introducing a self-sustaining,
mite-killing  fungus into
> the hive environment.  Fungus were known to kill mites and Rothamstead has
> found several types effective against varooa",  Jim commented:" I think
that the real problem is going to be finding a fungus that can thrive in the
"controlled climate" of a beehive brood chamber".  Jim commented how well
bees control mold within the hive.

Presumably this is what Roth is now testing - has anyone got news on
progress?   However, we can note that the micro-clmate within a hive varies
from the centre of the brood out to the honey stores out at the edges. When
a fungus kills a mite,   the fungus produces sporulating bodies on the
corpse from which fungus spores float away to settle where they can.  If (I
speculate) spores settled in empty cells even at the edge of the nest then
they might be picked up on the body hairs of cell-cleaning bees - and still
be there if and when a varooa hitches a lift. This mechanism would not  kill
all varooa in a hive immediately but would
increase the odds against varooa survival and so slow the rate of population
growth.  We need to make the internal environment sufficiently hostile to
varooa that varroa and bees can co-exist without much risk of a colony ever
being overwhelmed - except when robber bees bring back a sudden burst, that
will always be dangerous, and will need constant vigilance from beekeepers
to monitor mite drop thru screens.  (Presumably screens will also be needed
to catch the sporulating bodies and not let them drop too far out of
contact).  So I await news from Roth in hope that fungus will be part of the
long-term answer.

Robin Dartington
(who believes we must accept working within the rules of nature, not just
hammer the environment with poisons which have never ever eliminated any
insect species entirely)

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