Hi George:

Unfortunately, varroa mites are very much alive and well in this south-central region of Alaska. It
seems to me little concern is paid to them around here by most people who are summer
beekeepers and do not overwinter. I took some mites to a bee meeting a couple of years back
where one woman told me she’d often seen some of them in her hives, but never knew what they
were. She had bees seasonally for a number of years. Another old timer here told me all that mite
business is a bunch of crap. He insisted it’s nothing more than something dreamed up by
researchers so they can get money and have something to study. (I only wish what he said was
true for my bees that I do attempt to ovewinter.)

It’s unlikely we have any feral colonies. Maybe once in a great while a swarm *might* survive a
winter, but that would be about it as far as I know.

>The vast amount of verbiage......provides no solution to the varroa problem.....

Well said George.  :)

Regards,
Dick Allen

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