On Mite Resistant Beekeepers-
 
Back in the good old days (about 5 years ago) I wrote the following in our
club newsletter on tracheal mites:
 
"The mites are here.  I don't care what you do about them- use grease
patties, menthol, buy queens advertised as mite resistant, or whatever, but
if you do nothing, you will get no sympathy from me when you lose your bees."
 
Two years later, I was the "lucky" person who first found Varroa mites in my
area.   Fortunately, it didn't take colony kills for me to find them;  the
Varroa were found on the bottom boards during spring inspection.
 
The regrettable sad fact of life is that unless you live on an island
someplace, these mites are as much a part of beekeeping today as the fact
that bees have stingers.   Because of these mites, our once-independent bees
are now as likely to survive without care as Holstein cows.   Yet there are
still people out there who refuse to acknowledge the mites, and they pay
dearly for their stubborness.
 
Sure, the treatment is expensive (about $10/year for each hive), but it's
something we have to do until mite-resistant bees become available.   Until
then we have two choices:  "get with the program", or lose most of our
colonies.
 
W. G. Miller
Gaithersburg, MD