Lisa Marie Burley writes: > Acaricide treatments expose not only mites to the chemical, but eggs, larvae, and adult honey bees as well. Several studies have shown negative effects of miticides on the health of colonies and individuals within the hive. The most alarming findings regarding the use of miticides have been the effects on the reproductive physiology of queens and drones. Queens exposed to fluvalinate may lead to problems such as queen loss, supersedure, and queen mortality. > Other reports have shown the negative effects of coumaphos on queens, including high mortality, lowered body and ovary weights, decreased sperm numbers in the spermatheca, lowered acceptance of larvae grafted for queen cells, and reduced numbers of queens functioning in colonies after 6 months. Miticide use in honey bee colonies has also been shown to reduce drone survival and production. Etc [these are not "sublethal effects" pb] *********************************************** The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html