> On  8 Dec 97 at 15:02, Andy Nachbar wrote:
>
> > Second, any treatments for the trachea or any of the acarine mites
> > has little or no economic value as this pest comes and goes in most
> > commercial apiaries without economic harm in the majority of
> > apiaries studied.
>
> While I usually defer to Andy's knowledge I cannot agree with this
> statement. With a 'true' diagnosis of T-mites, rather than a
> suspected infestation, to leave untreated means the certain death of the
> colony. I have never heard of T-mites curing themselves!!!
 
Well, we have had the dreaded T Mites for a number of years now and
although we sample regularly we have never seen TM levels high enough to
justify the expense and bother to the bees that treatment entails.
 
We have _never_  treated -- although I have all the stuff here at the
ready.
 
Yes we have some winter losses, but they do not in any way corelate to the
fall TM sample results in the various locations.
 
> Of course, a far better solution, to re-queen with proven T-mite
> resistant stock, and no medication.
 
Hmmm.  What is mite resistant?
 
FWIW, we use queens from local sources, NZ, Aus, and Hawaii and their
colonies all seem to run about the same TM infestation levels.  (<10%)
 
For some reason, some of our locations seem to consistently have higher
levels of mites and others zero.
 
We don't know why.  Any ideas?
 
Allen
 
---
* Want to cut the volume of mail from BEE-L?
* Want to improve the signal to noise ratio?
Send email to [log in to unmask] saying
join bestofbee