Forgive me if this post falls short of promoting this
'guy with bees' as "beekeeper".  His management
practice working off our backs is decidedly selfish &
short-sighted to clearly help deny the remainder of us
livelihood, simply to save himself a bit of
effort/cost over a few seasons.  Sort of like the
impatient driver whom bumps your fender on the freeway
only to drive the same speed in front of you.  Very
little gained & potentially a
giant hazard for everyone concerned.

If he/you wanted to breed Apistan resistance this
would be EXACTLY the way to do it.  To add to this
discussion I wonder if beekeepers or Wellmark(mfg)
could sue this 'guy with bees' for negligence if proof
of his activities were available - knowingly/actively
harming the industry?
(anyone?)

To answer your question -- can 4 years w/out Apistan
bring back renewed effectiveness given obvious
chance/probability of previous resistance?  I'll
cancel myself out as 'experienced' as we haven't found
resistant varroa until last year -- shipped in from
packages from CA and those varroa wiped
out an entire out-apiary in the last two seasons.
Nothing (legal) worked, though the ~dozen hives
weren't worth chancing other activities.

But common sense tells me once genetics are in place I
doubt nature would work backwards.  You'd do yourself
and every beekeeper around you a great
favor by use of alternative applications (i.e. Formic,
OA (!!), Thymol, Sucracide).  100% kill is unlikely
but at least you could slow down the
transfer of your mites to your other hives or
surrounding areas with a 'best-effort'.

Does that 'guy with bees' still have hives or did he
sell them all to you?

Matthew Westall - E-Bees, Castle Rock, CO
- one of the few times I've been thoroughly disgusted
with an element in our community

----- Original Message -----
From: "Tim Vaughan" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, August 13, 2005 8:08 AM
Subject: [BEE-L] Apistan after 4 years


> I found
> out that the guy who I'd bought the majority of my >
hives from left the
> Apistan strips in all year and scraped them with
> the hive tool when he
> visited the hives.
>
> Does anyone have any experience, or even an educated
guess as to whether 4
> years without Apistan would have selected for mites
that would now be
> susceptible to Apistan? I'd like to give Check-mite
a break this year.
>
> Thanks and regards to the list
> Tim Vaughan


__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
-- Visit www.honeybeeworld.com/BEE-L for rules, FAQ and  other info ---
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::