> > The bees who have the mites or had mites are not the issue. > Yes, I understand that the "best" population to overwinter is a population that has not had to deal with mite attack. But my question (the issue over which I wonder) is do attacked bees get over the attack once the attacker is defeated? Varroa attack bees via a "drill like" structure of their mouth parts that they use to puncture bees' exoskeleton allowing the vampire mite to suck bees' hemolymph. Speculation is that these puncture wounds are the avenues/entry points for virus attack. My question is, do these puncture wounds heal over once the varroa and their drill-like mouthpart is removed, or does the door remains open for virus attack once the mites are gone? If the answer is no, the puncture wounds don't heal and the door remains open, then all the more reason to treat early. I guess as far as my question goes, varroa is a red herring. I could just as well have asked, if a bee gets cut does the cut heal? However, I ask because I am wondering about virus invasion. Aaron Morris - I think, therefore I bee!