> Perhaps the best "ground truth" is shown in my Figure 6, which tracks
> honey
> production and number of colonies in Iowa (at Ground Zero for GM crops and
> neonicotinoid seed treatments) from 1974 through 2010.

Would have been interesting to see some sort of data on the weather and
proximity of bee forage to colonies, but I guess that is asking too much.

I can see the drop in colonies after the arrival of varroa - not surprising
as many beekeepers gave up the fight, but would your graph have then
levelled off if it were not for the arrival of Bt Corn,  RR Corn and Poncho
seed treatment?  Surely it could be argued that the graph shows them having
a further effect on the decline in colony numbers, rather than laying it all
at the door of varroa?

Best wishes

Peter

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