> >What is very clear, is, in Mark's words: "Apistan is the type of product that
> >can induce resistance even if properly used"... Are we now in a situation
> where all we can do is to wait patiently for the demise of the Western bees?.
> Another species added to the ever lengthening extinction list. I read Allen's
> post and it has filled me with a sense of foreboding.

There is light at the end of the tunnel, and it is not an oncoming train.

I remember the same reaction with the advent of tracheal mites in North America
as well.  Yours is not an uncommon reaction for people when confronted with a
new scourge.  I can sympathise.  It was not too long ago that varroa hit North
America, and I clearly remember that some beekeepers said, even on this list
that they would give up beekeeping before they would accept having to deal with
varroa.

Subsequently, some put their heads in the sand and pretended that varroa could
not appear in their apiaries.  Others refused to use the diagnoses and chemicals
necessary to recognise, assess, and deal with varroa.  Some were simply inept.
Some misunderstood the instructions or thought that they were smarter than those
who worked to develop the methods of control and misapplied the treatments,
sometimes overdosing or underdosing or using unproven and quixotic methods.
Some were led down the garden path by the doomsayers who made up wild stories
about the supposed dangers of the approved treatments and who hyped 'cures' from
the spice garden.  Some ran 'experiments' on their bees, but had neither
controls nor methods of assessing any results.  Most or all of these lost their
bees or a significant part of them.  Many blamed the mites and everyone but
themselves and made the problem seem much bigger than the minor pain it really
is.

The rest of the beekeepers buckled down, attended meetings, listened carefully,
read the list and the many excellent books on varroa and got to work
conservatively using the methods that researchers world-wide have developed
through trial and error and the scientific method.  Most of these found that
they had a greater burden of work, and another significant expense to deal with,
but became much better beekeepers in the process.

Some beekeepers and researchers networked to try to develop bees that are better
able to tolerate varroa and tracheal mites, or combed the world looking for
stock that is able to withstand varroa.  There is a lot of brainpower world-wide
working on this problem, and I doubt it will be more than a few years before the
need for routine use of harsh chemicals will be eliminated or vastly reduced.

As for the bees, they would survive, regardless.  They are too diverse and
numerous to be entirely eliminated by their old parasite catching up with them
one more time.  The problem is an economic problem for man who depends on the
bees and for the plants that require pollination.  Left to themselves, the bees
would deal with the problem within a few hundred years at most -- an eyeblink
for the bees, but an eternity in the minds of modern man.

allen

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