> I don't believe that is correct. When you do a varroa treatment, you don't ever get 100% effectiveness.

So, nature rarely deals in absolutes. It's all about thresholds. Under a certain threshold is great. Over a threshold causes issues.

Let me give you an example. My current house in built on the site of an apple orchard years ago. As such, the arsenic that they used as pest control has leached into the ground water.  I also have a well. When I bought the house, the well water had an arsenic level of 14 mcg/L. Above the safe level established by WHO of 10 mcg/L [https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/arsenic]. I did my research, put in a 2 ft^3 activated carbon filter, and the arsenic level dropped to 8 mcg/L. My mom lives with me. She's going to be 91 and has used this water now for close to 10 years. She's a very perky 90++. My dad drank it for 8 years and lived to be 92. He did not die of arsenic poisoning.

I have not checked my genome for susceptibility to arsenic poisoning, but I have no reason to believe it is superior to the norm.

Drop the mite level to <1%, and enough bees will be unaffected that their genetic resistance to varroa will be inconsequential to the survival of the hive. You remove inheritance from the equation.

S

Skillman, NJ

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