> <<<As I have some yards that have been exposed to Varroa it is my
> intention to treat these with Apistan this fall.
 
>Well, I wonder if any varroa can be detected.
 
>What is the cost of sampling vs. treatment?
 
>What is the effect of fluvalinate on wintering bees?
 
>My understanding is that it is a poison that affects the bees only
>to a lesser extent than the mites.
 
>Why use it if no mites can be found?<<<<<<<
 
        At the risk of stirring the dust of recent history, I am moved to
remind readers that those of us who live with Varroa mites do not take them
lightly.
      When V. mites arrive in an area, they spread with stunning rapidity to
kill both feral colonies and managed colonies of honeybees.  Here in
southeastern Pennsylvania (USA), colonies died suddenly  just weeks after
happy beekeepers had extracted honey in early September.   Beekeepers whose
bees did not die that autumn had to decide whether to treat or gamble on
reisistant bees.  Those who did not treat lost their bees the next summer.
        Fluvalinate controls Varroa mites; it does not kill all of the mites
in a colony.
       Treatment with fluvalinate twice a year means that I have bees.
       And, yes, it means that my bees swarm and just enough of these swarms
escape to make a summer reservoir of mites in my area which can be spread by
drifting bees to untreated colonies.
 
 
 
Tim Sterrett
Westtown, (Southeastern) Pennsylvania, USA
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