Well I second your emotion Andy...about the misplaced "Bogeyman" but...
I live in Sonoma county and I have watched with interest the wild bee
populations around my ranch now for about seven years or more. They have
always seemed to be on a slight increase...even with a terrible winter or
two.
(One that killed off a lot of eucalyptus)
The only problem is that about 3 years ago I noticed the bee trees my
daughter and I used to visit were increasingly empty. I didn't put much
stock in the mites as my grandfather used to say healthy bees will
survive just about anything. He put oil of peppermint in the water and
checked for weak hives and replacing when necessarry (no matter what)
made it a moot point what caused the problem. AFB was dealt with and life
went on. But what I have been seeing is really disturbing; the feral bee
population is DOWN. Over about a 300 acre parcel I used to roam (part of
it on BLM) I can find no colonies. Seven years ago I counted five. This
morning I watched a measly five to ten bees work an acacia that by now
would be crawling with bees and that with ten kept hives a quarter of a
mile away. The russian river area by Alexander Valley is practcally
devoid of bees. So, regardless of what is going on...SOMETHING is happening.
   I won't say it is Mites and I won't say it's not. Got any other clues?
 
 
 
jrb