> Fluvalinate resistant mites are becoming the norm now in the U.S.. I found
> my first (or they found me) in 1997 in Missouri. They are easy to find if
> you put a Coumaphos strip in for 24 hours after your Apistan treatment is
> done. I have made believers out of many Apistan users. Dr. Delaplane found
> Apistan provided no control at all in his recent tests done in Georgia.

I'm wondering how soon we will be finding this problem in Canada.  Usually such
problems develop first in southern areas where the mites are able to reproduce
all year and where several treatments a year are necessary.  The problem is
slower developing in the north where fewer treatments are required annually and
newly resistant mites die quietly in winter without a chance to move to the next
hive.  It appears that usually beekeepers transport the resistant mites north
faster than they develop there.  Once they develop in a southern area the
resistant mites are spread by migratory beekeeping, package shipments, and
possibly with queens and attendants being shipped.

In the US, due to the widespread hauling and shipping of bees from south to
north and east to west and back again, any problem that appears anywhere can be
found throughout the nation in a matter of a few years.  That seems to have
applied to AHB, resistant AFB, SHB, and pretty well every other pest or disease
of bees that has been discovered.

In Canada, migration is much less common and usually follows particular routes.
For the most part, there is not much incentive to migrate and most beekeepers
stay put.  Since the border has been closed to the USA for over 15 years now,
there has been a barrier to the US problems moving into Canada.  It is not
perfect, since there are some areas with beekeepers across the border from one
another, but the natural patterns have tended to delay the incursion of new
problems unless, as was likely the case with SAFB, they are imported and jump
the line of defence.

If, indeed, Apistan resistant bees are commonplace in the US, then I am
concerned that they will soon appear in Canada.  Some beekeepers in our area are
pressing hard to open the border.  Others are smuggling queens from the
continental US. This would import the problem into the heart of our major honey
producing region.

Coumaphos has apparently helped protect US bees after fluvalinate lost its
efficacy, but I understand that, in time, even Coumaphos will lose its power.
Moreover, from what I heard in San Diego, Coumaphos is a most noxious substance
that builds up in beeswax at and amazing rate.  Once it reaches certain levels,
it has subtle but serious effects on brood rearing.  Queen rearing is also
affected.  We do not know how it affects wintering bees that are confined with
residues for long periods.  It seems to me that it cannot be used more than a
few times with impunity.

I wonder how often and how long Coumaphos can be used before its useful life,
like Apistan, is over.  I am not sure this question has been directly
confronted.  Coumaphos was introduced as a stop-gap, emergency SHB measure, but
is now considered by many beekeepers as a routine varroa treatment.  That
concerns me.  I can see Apistan resistant mites coming my way if the effort to
import US bees is successful or smuggling is not curtailed and, as it stands,
that will mean Coumaphos.

Of course, there are other mite control methods.  Some have observed here that
formic acid can be beneficial, but it has its problems.  One is that -- for some
reason -- formic seems to be more effective on low levels of mites than on
higher levels.  It is not as reliable or easy as putting in a strip.

Perhaps there are other things in the works that will protect us from varroa,
but I don't see any that are all that promising on any kind of commercial scale.
In the long term, biological management using specially selected and bred bees
is the most acceptable and cost-effective solution to this problem, but it has a
large up-front cost and a fairly long development time, in the order of a
decade, once begun.

A program to develop such stock could reduce or eliminate the burden of mites
(and of other major bees diseases in the process) and return tremendous benefits
to beekeepers and to society at large.  However, I see no will or funding to
begin such an endeavour.  Pity.  Time is a wasting and the time for stop-gap
measures is running out.

allen

http://www.internode.net/HoneyBee/
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It doesn't matter what temperature the room is, it's always room temperature.
        -- Steven Wright