Mike
Please be careful of sweeping generalizations. There are beekeepers who
have experienced CCD and who have also had problems controlling mites. We've
also seen tracheal mites in high levels in recovering hives (but these mites
were not in the same hives before collapse). We've seen CCD in operations with
no evidence of mite problems.
I just saw a new collapse in CA where aggressive mite treatments were used
in the fall, repeated in Jan when a few mites were found. Colonies were
strong, wall to wall bees, 4-5 frames of brood, no evidence of mites (two weeks
ago). Yesterday, out of 400, only 30 were strong enough to shake bees from,
and the majority had collapsed down to 3-4 frames or less of bees, with lots of
brood, 40 lbs honey, and frames of fresh pollen.
I don't know which beekeeper, which state inspector, nor who among the CCD
was offered the mite samples. However, we know mite control is an issue in
some of these cases - but this is not simply failed mite control.
As per someone among the CCD group not wanting samples -- mite samples per
se aren't likely to provide any answers - unless those mites were carrying
some pathogen -- and to find this, the samples would have to be reasonably fresh
and properly preserved, otherwise things break down and are unusable.
Finally, most of the CCD work is still unfunded -- we all have to prioritize
which samples we're going to take, analyze - just don't have the funds to
check every sample offered -- and at this point, we're not short of operations
from which to obtain samples, so we're trying to take samples in ways that
will allow us to make comparisons within a beeyard or operation, and among
yards and bee operations.
I hope this helps clarify things.
Jerry
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