allen dick wrote:

>> I coat my mold (a rimmed cookie sheet) with Crisco so get the added
>> benefit of a little tracheal control.
>
>
> Very little, I believe.

Twas a joke, but since you asked... Diana did do the work. What she was
found was vegetable oil masked the difference between older and younger
bees so the mites stayed with the older bees and died with them. The
best time to apply it was in the fall and so bees overwintered with it,
one patty on the top of the frames of each hive body.

By spring, Tracheal was not a problem so patties were unnecessary. May
have been pollen that took over the masking job or the bees just
increased in number faster than the mite. Even in winter, Tracheal was
not a sure killer for most colonies got through but weak and stunted, a
state that could be caused by several other problems. And most that came
through did grow into a strong colony by summer, just not a good honey
producer since they had a slow start.

I do think that some of the current losses are from Tracheal and not
just Varroa. It did take a long time to recognize the losses from
Tracheal when it "first" came on the scene (it may have been around much
longer, just not identified). Plus, I doubt if many current beekeepers
would know it was the cause of their losses since you do need to dissect
the bees to positively ID the mite. (At the 1990 Maine EAS we did so,
but sometimes, if you pop off the head just right you can see the mites
in the trachea. - soon to be on an episode of CSI.)

My bees of several years ago, at the height of Tracheal, tested clean of
them, the only bees in the area that did so. I grew my own. In time, you
can lose resistant characteristic since the pressure has been removed.
So we may be going through a classic resistance, loss of resistance,
collapse, resistance, cycle. Nothing lasts forever, even Tracheal mite
resistance. Or we may have been concentrating so hard on Varroa, that we
are replacing our Tracheal resistant bees with ones that are not.

One other possibility, and this is pure conjecture, is with all our
Varroa mite treatments like Apistan and Cumophose, that also kill
Tracheal (so does Formic Acid- have no idea about Oxalic), we may have
bred a resistant Tracheal mite as well as resistant Varroa.

Bill Truesdell
Bath, Maine

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