>
> That's life, but where do we go from here?  I watched a lot of my bees die
> last year because of resistant varroa.  I am not prepared to do that again
> this year.

While that is not an attractive answer it may be part of the key to fixing
this whole mess.


>  Do I treat with Apistan, hoping all the resistant mites "culled"
> themselves out when the colony perished?  That would be too easy.

It may not be easy but it may work. One of the things I have been doing is
not doing "regular" treatments. I try to keep an eye on the mite levels
and treat when my "guess" says that the colony is under strain. Right now
I do this by inspecting drone brood. When I find a number of drone cells
that are populated by exactly two mites I consider the hive at risk. I
have some colnies that have not be treated in over 18 months and are going
strong. Some are not even showing high drone brood infection.

> Do I
> break the law and treat my bees with an "unapproved" formic acid formulation
> using the same methods found in Canada or other countries?  I don't think
> so!  My choices are dwindling.  Should I use Check Mite?  I would rather
> not.

Our state bee inspectors were raising dire warnings about small hive
beetle and resistant mites. Here in Florida we are the SHB capital. I have
a package of Check Mite on the shelf in case I get hit, but would rather
it grow old and get a trip to the dump. To date I have not seen a SHB in
my area. If they show up I am going to try a number of other legal things
before I put in the strips.