Hi all, >I requested several weeks ago that a few of you more verbose posters >reply <if you could be so kind> to Ormond Aebi's question,... >What in your opinion is the best single treatment for Varroa? I answered Rob direct on this but feel I would like to broadcast my views on the 'best' treatment. I believe that the 'best' is either bio-mechanical or whatever your neighbours are using (presuming it's reasonable) because the mites will more easily develop resistance to chemicals if they get a little sniff of each chemical from each beekeeper. Chemicals are only buying us time and we must protect and extend that time as much as we can. 'Blanket' treatment over a large area can knock back a pest very effectively all over that area for some time. ----- Varroa in Drone Brood I believe that varroa uses _only_ drone brood in Apis Cerana and I think that this is due to the life cycle of the mite. The 'capped' time for Cerana is rather shorter than in Mellifera and I think that in worker brood it is _too_ short for successful Varroa maturation. In Mellifera, the _even_longer_ drone brood time is just _great_ for successful Varroa maturation. ----- Varroa on other hosts. I have been told here during recent lectures at the British Beekeepers' Association spring convention that Varroa are 'totally unable to survive on any hosts [than honeybees]' I'm not in retrospect sure whether this is Mellifera and Cerana only or includes Dorsata, Florea and the 'new' one, the name of which escapes me. I haven't seen the Bee World article, I may try to locate a copy. ----- Colony desertion We also heard at the same lectures of cases of colony desertion when heavily infested by Varroa. It seems that several colonies that were under investigation to see what the mechanism is of colony collapse (in the UK at least), deserted the hive typically leaving just the queen and a few workers. This strange behaviour is suggested also to explain sudden _vast_ increases in Varroa concentrations in otherwise normally progressing colonies. Kerry Clark comments on this on Bee-l and various friends here have also commented (up from tens per day on Bayvarol to thousands per day in tests just a few weeks apart). The researcher on this is Dr. Stephen Martin at Cardiff University here in the UK. I don't yet know if he has an Email address -- I must find out! I suspect that he would be very interested in any correlating evidence. He also reports 'relatively large' _natural_ mite motality in study colonies, up to 900 per day rather than the 'few' per day at colony collapse reported elsewhere. The reason is as yet unclear but is guessed to be due to a lower level of secondary infections. Again I guess he would be interested in correlating evidence. ----- Beekeeping on CompuServe. Someone asked a little while ago about Beekeeping on Compuserve. There does not appear to be anything like Bee-l there, but some beekeepers do chat in the Gardening Forum. ----- Spring has arrived (again) here. After a false start in mid March followed by three or four weeks of cold (by our standards) wet and windy weather with a little snow (I had to feed four out of six colonies -- all nucs from last year), the sun has come back. Temperatures are up to about 15C, the wind and rain are mostly gone and the bees are out working at last. Bye for now, Gordon.