Dear all,
 
The Varroa mite has now present in at least three (to my knowledge)
locations throughout Scotland, where it has been brought by ignorant
beekeepers from infected areas of the UK.
 
The policy of the official people here is education (admirable but too
little too late) and also a policy of testing and destroying hives which
have varroa, in a hope of eradicating the mite (is this futile and too
late also ?)
 
Am I right in thinking that once the mite is present then it is a waste
of time destroying infected colonies. The best approach for the future
being to help beekeepers keep alive as many colonies as possible, rather
than destroying the hives.
 
Clearly destroying all infected hives, is going to make a lot of people
give up, or keep their bees out of the way of the officials, neither
which is good for the disease management. Destroying hives in my opinion
is  like going out to buy a fire extinguisher when your house is on
fire.
 
I want the rest of the varroa ridden world to mail me and comment.
 
Many thanks and
 
b est wishes
 
Steve Pearce
________________________________________________________________________
Dr Stephen R. Pearce
Kilspindie
Perthshire
Scotland