Bill said:
Had chemicals not been used, there would be no commercial operations in the
US. Chemicals gave a respite for other methods of control to be
developed.

The answer to varroa is a bee which can live with varroa and pollinate &
produce a honey crop.
We are closer to finding such a bee thanks to chemicals.

The leave alone theory has not worked.

Beekeeper story:
A friend (third generation beekeeper) left 2000 hives untreated in 1993.
Granddad had told him to let varroa do its worse and breed from the
survivors. At the ABF convention in Orlando in 1994 he had around 180
colonies left.
He was treating but those hives were over threshold and died anyway.

Many many beekeepers tried the leave alone method for both tracheal mite and
varroa with disappointing results.

Another beekeeper story:
A large beekeeper in Missouri wanted to wait and see how bad varroa losses
would be before buying apistan strips (why spend the money) although he had
found varroa in his hives.

He wintered his hives in Texas in the fall of 1992 and a late flow happened
and the bees kept raising brood and the varroa kept reproducing.

 When he was ready to make splits in the spring of 1993 90% of the hives
were dead or dying. He fired his head beekeeper for incompetence which
caused the later demise of the business as he was unable to hire another
professional beekeeper.

FERAL SWARMS ????

Most swarms people are catching are coming from swarms from managed
colonies. The only swarm calls I get are in the area of one of my yards and
has been the case for many years.

I suspect there are other beekeepers in Yoon's area or the swarms may be
coming from his own bee hives.

Bob

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