A couple of points re the recent discussion: There are several discussions of the topic, in New Perspectives on Varroa (ed. A. Matheson) IBRA 1994: Buchler. Varroa tolerance in honey bees - occurence, characters and breeding. p 12 - 23. Milani and Nazzi. Findings on the fertility of varroa under lab conditions. p 41 -46. Boot Calis and Beetsma. Possibilities for breeding honey bees resistant to varroa p 53 -55 Cermak. The possibility of selecting honey bees for resistance against varroa p 56 -57 Ifantidis. Factors influencing the population growth of varroa. p 58 -62. Murilhas. Susceptibility of commercial strains of bees to varroa in Mediterranean conditions. p 63 - 77. My overall impression: there are several characteristics of honey bees, and other factors that influence the severity of varroa infestation: they are related to bee subspecies, attractiveness of brood to mites, variable mite reproduction, bee's grooming (self and nestmate) and hygenic behavior (removal of infested brood), and length of the bees' post-capping period. It's not clear if any one, or what combination of these will be necessary for this tolerance or resistance to be fully adequate. A stock of A. mellifera which co-exists with varroa in temperate areas without beekeeper management, seems possible but has not been confirmed. Tracheal mite resistance has been selected in bees in several breeding programs in the past few years. It seems that just as much resistance to tracheal mites can be selected from within the bees already in North America, as is present in European bees. A greater degree of resistance to tracheal mites is required in some environments (poor foraging, long winters) so what is adequate depends a lot on where you mean to keep bees. That may apply to varroa resistance, too. When a high intensity of selection is necessary (1 in a million) and then used to replace existing stock, there is a danger of losing the variability that gives the overall bee population its resiliency. If we all used clones of what we became convinced was "the perfect stock" there could be an increased susceptibility to the next problem. Kerry Clark, Apiculture Specialist B.C. Ministry of Agriculture 1201 103 Ave Dawson Creek B.C. V1G 4J2 CANADA Tel (604) 784-2225 fax (604) 784-2299 INTERNET [log in to unmask] .