>>When colonies are widely separated as in the Arnot forest the mites have nowhere else to go so it is in their interest not to exterminate the host. I saw Tom Seeley's map with the nest locations. They are close enough to be robbed out [and the mites transfered to the new host locations]. The same would hold for any managed colonies near the forest. I doubt the mite difference between the forest nest and managed nest is significant. Virus presence or lack thereof might be a bigger factor. I have not heard that anyone has looked at virus levels in the forest colonies. I remove/collect feral colonies in suburbia and many of them undoubtedly originate from managed nests yet do just fine on their own. I am inclined to think the mite or virus types are different. Walemar ****************************************************** * Full guidelines for BEE-L posting are at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm * ******************************************************