Peter Borst <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

...There were significant differences between cell sizes in offspring 
composition but the results do not indicate that the reproduction of mites 
was substantially influenced by cell size on worker bee brood.
----->

Hello PB,

From my experience, small cell works over time, there is no need to cream 
them all the varroa in a single brood cycle or two. 

I understanding is it is an old outdated 10 year old study you are 
referring to here.  But, even though it is outdated, old and dusty, the 
study did show that the smaller size cells caused more Non-reproducing 
mites and less reproduction of mites than the larger sizes. So it is more  
supportive of the small cell evidence than it is against the evidence. 

In this more 'recent study' by De Jong 2003, De Jong finds a significant 
differenc in varroa infestations between large and small cells:

“Varroa mite infestations in Africanized honey bee brood are clearly 
affected by comb cell width”

“Additionally, in our experimental colonies the mites could choose between 
small Africanized comb cells, “medium-sized” Italian cells and large 
Carniolan cells. They preferred the largest cells.”

“About 100 cells of each type were analyzed in each colony. The 
Africanized comb cells were significantly smaller in (inner) width (4.84 
mm) than the European-sized comb cells (5.16 and 5.27 mm for Italian and 
Carniolan cells, respectively). The brood cell infestation rates 
(percentage cells infested) were significantly higher in the Carniolan-
sized comb cells (19.3%) than in the Italian and Africanized cells (13.9 
and 10.3%, respectively). The Carniolan-sized cells also had a 
significantly larger number of invading adult female mites per 100 brood 
cells (24.4) than did the Italian-sized cells (17.7) and the natural-sized 
Africanized worker brood cells (15.6). European-sized worker brood cells 
were always more infested than the Africanized worker brood cells in the 
same colony. There was a highly significant correlation (P<0.01) between 
cell width and the rate of infestation with varroa in four of the six 
colonies. The small width comb cells produced by Africanized honey bees 
may have a role in the ability of these bees to tolerate infestations by 
Varroa destructor, furthermore it appears that natural-sized comb cells 
are superior to over-sized comb cells for disease resistance.”

Joe Waggle 
Ecologicalbeekeeping.com 
‘Bees Gone Wild Apiaries' 
Feral Bee Project:
 http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FeralBeeProject/

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