I've had a strong suspicion that not only do the robbing bees carry mites back to their parent colony, but in addition a good number of the victim hive's bees end up back in the robbing hive -- mites, disease and all. In fact, I'll go further - I suspect they may even join in and assist with the robbing.

Why - I reflect back on Thomas Seeley's work demonstrating how behavior actions and decisions flow through a mass of bees. To greatly simplify -- once a massive overwhelming behavior pattern develops: the residents bees may interpret the mayhem as " This is what we are doing today "  packing up, collecting remaining honey, and joining the crowd at a new address. This may be a consolidation of resources pattern which has gone on for thousands of years. Varroa may have simply added an ugly twist to a long standing survival pattern.

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