Hello James and All,

James wrote:
 In other words, during the brood rearing time, X varroa will
> produce X x reproduction factor per generation, which has the same
> duration here as there.

Varroa reproduction is very complicated. I wish it was as simple as above.
We did in fact believe in the U.S. varroa reproduction was predictable  ten
years ago.

With the discovery of SMR and many facts about varroa reproduction we have
slowly crawled forward in varroa control WITHOUT CHEMICALS . You have to
crawl before you can walk. I said years ago the key to natural varroa
control is solving the mysteries of varroa reproduction. I spent months
looking at cerana trying to unlock the key to varroa not being able to
reproduce in cerana worker brood believing if the same principal could be
applied to mellifera the varroa  problem could be solved.

I NEVER saw virus control as the answer nor did any U.S. researchers I have
talked to about possible varroa control other than chemicals. I do respect
Dr. Carricks work and think the work worthwhile but remain skeptical.

How long would any species survive if it could not reproduce? Turn varroa
sterile or unable to reproduce and varroa would be history.

Varroa will in my opinion always be the most serious pest beekeeping has
ever faced.

 The Africanized bee research has been a huge waste of beekeeping research
dollars in my opinion (and still is). I oppose all but the most important
AHb research. We know all we need to know about AHb. Let us destroy or
requeen bad tempered hives and move on.

Sincerely,
Bob