>Cannot science isolate the particular pheromone produced by the larvae as
a 'cap me please ' call - which could be synthesised and injected into
artificial brood comb which has a miticide bullet in the bottom of the
cells. This would eliminate mites when they try to enter cells ready to be
capped and not affect the colony overall. Has all this already been tried
and proved impossible?

Dr Peter Teal at Gainsville has looked into this.  Dr Denis Anderson of
Australia is pushing for it, suggesting that the solution is in breeding
bees for altered pheromonal production (a premise with which I entirely
agree).  The Baton Rouge lab worked on developing such lines (SMR) until
they were distracted by VSH.  I'd like to see breeders go back to SMR.

Unfortunately, their is little economic incentive to do so so long as
amitraz remains effective.  The ticking time bomb for the US bee industry
is the expected eventual failure of amitraz to control mites.  If and when
it fails, then we may be forced to get serious about breeding.

-- 
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

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