I'm stunned.

Grease patties?  
Double-you-tee-eff???

This is the twenty-FIRST century, and tracheal mite susceptible
queens are nothing more than defective merchandise sold to 
unsuspecting beekeepers by queen and package producers who 
are selling substandard (diseased!) stock.

Read this:
http://www.ars.usda.gov/Services/docs.htm?docid=2744&page=12

Note that this was published in 1998 (for Pete's Sake!)

I remember that Bee-L was informed of these findings by Allen Dick
in advance of publication of the paper years and years ago.  
http://www.honeybeeworld.com/diary/articles/tracheal.htm

Sure, I sample for tracheal mites, and gosh it is tedious to
peer at all those trachea.  But if I ever found any actual 
tracheal mites, I would be on the phone demanding a full refund 
for that batch of queens, and that queen producer would not get 
my business again until they fixed their problem.

Friends don't let friends buy cruddy queens.


 

******************************************************
* Full guidelines for BEE-L posting are at:          *
* http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm  *
******************************************************