>> If science can land a man on the moon ... what could be so
 >> tough about finding varroa's Achilles heel?

 > I will proceed as if this is a serious question.
 > ...putting a man on the moon was a national goal and millions
 > of dollars were spent on it. No such imperative exists to wipe
 > out varroa.

Actually, this is a very serious question.

Millions of dollars have been spent on the problems caused and/or 
exacerbated by varroa and not a lot on understanding varroa itself. Why 
is this not an imperative?  Is the mite too profitable?

This problem is solvable, but apparently everyone has decided it isn't 
and the preoccupation these days is tinkering with awkward, expensive 
and ineffective half-solutions and workarounds that do not address the 
central problem, (That would be _varroa itself_ for those who have lost 
track).

This pest problem is not like mosquitoes or other pests which are out in 
the wild spaces with multiple hosts and hard to nail down.

This pest is, for all intents and purposes, restricted to one very 
defined host and one definite and restricted environment -- our bees and 
our beehives.  (The ferals, are not a huge problem if we can deal with 
varroa in our own hives).

Varroa has a very clear and defined life cycle. It appears to be very 
vulnerable that way.  We know exactly where varroa lives, and exactly 
what varroa does, but how much work has been done on its biology and 
idiosyncrasies?  There are immense differences between varroa and its 
host.  There must be something simple that kills varroa and has no 
effect on honey bees.

We are killing off many desirable species every day, why not this 
undesirable one?

Turning varroa destructor into an endangered species should be like 
shooting fish in a barrel.

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