John Burgess <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Isn't there a saying about fleas with little fleas upon them?

From an old children's song ("There Ain't No Bugs on Me")

      "Oh, the little bugs have even littler bugs
          on their tops and bottoms.
       And the littler bugs have even LITTLER bugs,
          and so ad infinitum!"

(Refrain): "Oh, there ain't no bugs on me,
               there ain't no bugs on me -
            There may be bugs on the rest of you mugs
               But there ain't no bugs on me!"

Now, this talk of breeding varroa resistent bees is very promising.  I
applaud the HIP program, its organizer and participants.

There is hope from the breeding programs.  In the past 12 months I have
heard two instances of possible progress.  John Harbo has discovered
mites that do not breed well, based on the observation that the "normal"
amount of varroa does not emerge on the emerging bee.  I thought, "Big
deal, faulty mites."  But John claims that this poor mite survival is
a fixable trait to bees across generations.

At EAS in July, Steve Tabor mentioned a bee breeder in Germany who is
currently raising bees that aggressively attack varroa mites.  He spoke
of a guy who uses a mere jeweler's glass to examine dead mites,
identifying the wound causing the mites' demise - This mite had a leg
torn off, that mite got "crunched", ...  Upon closer inspection of the
dead mites under better equipment (higher magnification) researchers
verified the breeder's diagnosis for the mites' causes of death.  This
breeder has been able to keep this aggressive to mites behavior across
generations.

Untimately I believe the best defense for varroa mites will come from
bee breeders.

Aaron Morris - thinking better bees through better breeding!