I saw the PLoS paper when it came out. It does not clearly implicate miticides as a cause of bee mortality. The combs they tested had all sorts of chemicals in them. We have been raising a red flag for several years now about the danger of fungicides. Chemical analysis of brood combs The number of different pesticide residues detected in treatment combs ranged from 4 to 17, averaging 10. The total number of pesticides detected in all treatments was 39 including 7 fungicides, 2 herbicides, 23 insecticides (miticides included) and 7 metabolites Experimental combs Frames of treatment brood comb originated from migratory Pacific Northwest beekeeping operations that used miticides and from colonies provided by the USDA- ARS honey bee laboratory, Beltsville, MD that were suspected to have died from Colony Collapse Disorder. Sub-Lethal Effects of Pesticide Residues in Brood Comb on Worker Honey Bee (Apis mellifera) Development and Longevity Judy Y. Wu, Carol M. Anelli, Walter S. Sheppard Received May 4, 2010; Accepted January 20, 2011; Published February 23, 2011 [note the lag time between submission and publication!] *********************************************** 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 Guidelines for posting to BEE-L can be found at: http://honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm