a MIke Palmer snip followed by > my comments 
First treatment cost me $4000. Do I have to spend $12000 or more to gain control?

>Often not considered is the total cost of treatment (time and money) for those with large numbers.  It also seems to me the treatment choices are a trade off between time required for application and the direct cost of the treatment. I am guessing here that Mike Palmer's numbers may not include labor cost and transportation????

>No matter how much time and money you spend, all treatments will fail at some point for a long list of reasons. For some this failure will lead to finger pointing to another beekeeper who they SUSPECT does not control for mites. This then excludes the potential for self reflection on how they might do things better and possible alter their own management style.

>I suspect that how folks traditionally keep bees (again management style) at a location may be part of the problem.  Large and very tall (bigger is better, right?) hives seem to be the preference of a lot of northern beekeepers. The economist in me still does not see much difference in 2 hives that produce 50# and 1 that will produce 100# (either in effort or the eventual bottom line). It seems the prime factor ignored is labor cost and transportation is often overlooked in the mental calculation of cost.

Gene in Central Texas...

   

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