>"Without a colony treatment against the parasite Varroa destructor the
conservation and survival of Apis mellifera is not possible."

I am in complete agreement that the extinction of A. mellifera is extremely unlikely, certainly any time soon. But before we whistle past the boneyard, a look at the fossil record reveals far more extinct species than living ones. There ain't no guarantees. Anyone seen a passenger pigeon lately, or xerces butterfly?

The statement that without treatment (read control) of varroa, viable beekeeping is not possible is I believe unquestionable. Some say that if we had never treated a single colony that the bees would have developed resistance by now. I believe that that is a guess unsupported by evidence.

Paul Hosticka
Dayton WA

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