Keith said > This Island has the rare
> opportunity to deal with varroa with natures help. All one needs to  have 
> nature help is to eradicate the beekeeper for a little while.

Hi Keith,
True, but I'm not sure how rare.  There are islands in Europe purposely 
being used this way.
What got me thinking about eradicating Oahu was a proposed long-term budget 
that I saw for dealing with the mite.
In my mind, it appeared far cheaper to simply let the mites do the work of 
depopulating the island, and starting fresh.
It's kind of nice to have a totally mite-free state.  Perhaps the island 
could be restocked with virus- and nosema-free bees.

Infestation will likely occur again, but we would at that point better 
understand the cost of total eradication.

This is a bold proposal, but I feel that it is one in which a cost-benefit 
analysis should be done.

Randy Oliver

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