Hello Bob, Peter and Everyone,

I have seen a few of the mite cycles while keeping bees commercially. But
then we routinely treated all hives. My few untreated hives are
surrounded by thousands of commercial hives and these guys are routinely
treating all their hives without knowing what the mites levels are until
the hives collapse. Then they change to a different chemical and treat
again.

So I cannot say what the mite levels in the surrounding area are but it
would be interesting to know.

Some of the cycles seem to be more related to the operation rather than
the climate as some of the commercial guys in this area have reported
severe problems while there neighbors reported routine levels but I doubt
they did much if any real testing.

Great idea a national mite survey.

Dennis