“Such drift would presumably follow the diffusion model, in which the
net drift of mites would tend to be from areas of high concentration
to those of low concentration.”

 Why would one presume this? If the mites migrated unassisted, it’d be
a slam dunk. But, requiring bees for transport, it would more likely
depend on drift or robbing (I don’t believe that a substantial mite
migration occurs from common foraging, just my opinion). So, barring
any robbing events in the test colonies, the main mechanism for mite
transfer would, again in my opinion, be drift. Why would one believe
that bees from hives with a higher varroa population would be more
likely to drift to those with smaller?

Dan Harris

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