Bob said:

> Sadly many beekeepers will continue to use both Apistan and
> Checkmite till varroa are crawling all over their bee suits
> before even looking at new methods of control *if* beekeeping
> history repeats itself.

Most beekeepers have no choice but to do so, at least for now.
Most states don't have "Section 18s" yet.

> All the whining over the price of strips will seem petty when
> faced with beekeeping without chemical strips. Beekeeping is
> about to become harder.

I don't see such a bleak short-term future.

If Section 18s could be issued for all states, especially those
states that have yet to see any "resistant" varroa, we could
start alternating treatments, and at least delay, if not
eliminate the onset of resistance to Apistan and/or Checkmite.

Section 18s are supposed to be applied for only in the event of
"an emergency".  The discovery of resistant varroa is clearly
sufficient "emergency", but I fear it will take some convincing
to get state-level authorities to consider the inevitable
development of resistant varroa an "emergency" sufficient to
justify a Section 18 application.

But what will it take to convince 100% of state apiarists?
More worrying who is to be convinced in states that no longer
even have state apiarists?

The "sucrose octante ester" treatment seems to be yet another
approach that simply does not "scale" well for regular use on
a large number of colonies.  I think it will be a great tool
for use when supers are on, if it passes muster at the FDA
as a "food grade treatment".  I had to take over a dozen
colonies out of production this summer because their mite
counts got too high, and I really do not have all that much
of a "serious varroa problem", one of the few advantages of
beekeeping bees not far from the middle of nowhere.

The Api-Life looks like something that does "scale" well, but
I can't legally use it this fall.  Neither can the bulk of
beekeepers in the USA.  That's unacceptable, given what we
all know.

                        jim

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