Hello John & All,

> Eighty five of my colonies have screened bottoms on pallets, and this
seems
> even more reason to change the rest over.

What is the size of your screen ?

southern Missouri told me the colony was started from a package this spring,
> and that he advised the use of Checkmite.

The migratory beekeeper always gets the blame for the spread of a new
problem when as with varroa most spread is by packages. I received my first
tracheal mites with a order of queens.

> Mann Lake sells a 5X5 pad to mount the Checkmite strip, in halves in their
> online catalog.  If I do a sugar shake and find a yard that needs varroa
> control AND it happens to be one of my yards with bottom boards, will the
> Checkmite poised for SHB control also control varroa?

No! Only the SHB will be controled when the checkmite is hid beneath the 5x5
pad. What the Florida state bee people are not saying is. When a hive is
weak the small hive beetle invades in such large numbers the checkmite under
pad  is of little use. Eggs are laid in numbers larger than the wax moth.
Only the amount of beetles hiding under the pad contact the contact
chemical. Weak hives have been lost with the checkmite pads in place! The
pads are however all we have got to fight the shb at present time. If the
shb proves to be a larger problem than *Mr. Cutts* says then the USDA will
no doubt come up with a better plan for control. As Mr. Cutts says weak
hives are always in danger from robbing, wax moths and the SHB. I do not
want to belittle the opinion of the Florida state  bee people but only post
what I have found out from talking to those beekeepers on the front lines in
Florida. Is not the internet wonderful?
Sincerely,
Bob Harrison
Odessa, Missouri
Ps. If you get shb in your hives I suggest you go to the Florida Beekeepers
list and join and read the archives and you can learn the IPM methods the
beekeepers are using. To numerous for me to post here.