"James Fischer" " To me, it seems that it is not a question of "if" one
should
> treat a colony, but instead, a question of "when", except in
> the unique and rare case of no detectable varroa at all."

I was grateful for this post because it really explained the inter-relation
of virus and varroa - and was so clearly written.

Surely the conclusion is also clear. A good varroa is a dead varroa.  Treat
on every opportunity when you can do so with only reasonable cost/labour.
Keep suppressing the varroa level to near zero. Was'nt the only reason the
'experts' were saying 'treat only when the level is so high the colony will
die otherwise' because it was known that bees would develop resistance to
Apistan faster the more times it was used (every successive application
selected mites that were on the way to developing resistance). But if we are
moving (in UK, I do not know elsewhere) to an IPM regime, the treatments are
of types where resistance is not expected to  develop.  It would seem  we
should apply IPM constantly, to every colony - does Jim really have a
dillema?

The question today, is how can we reduce the labour need for each treatment.
We need better engineering.

Jim also said: "Beekeepers are just now starting to get the message
that one must monitor varroa populations, a message that the
researchers and extension people have been pushing for years."  Thank
goodness for endorsement of monitoring.  Some posts seemed to have
questioned the point, on grounds that accurate corelation with mite
population seems impossible.  That really was confusing.  Has science not
has always been about measuring/experimenting/measuring again?  If there are
variables, does science not isolate the variables, determine which are
important, rather than give up?  Allen and Jim have both reffered to the
importance of keeping varroa below a level when multiple occupation of brood
cells starts, how can we know if the danger level approaches without
monitoring, estimating /forecasting mite population and comparing with
estimates for broodcell count (and remembering that varroa numbers
constantly increase, while brood count falls in autumn, precipitating a
sudden crisis)?

Robin Dartington  .

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