In message <[log in to unmask]>, Mike Tooley <[log in to unmask]> writes >Selecting for virus resistant bees is another option. That's happening and they do now exist in Germany and Austria. see http://griffes.tripod.com/VRbook.html >After all,isnt that >really what the Buckfast bee was all about,finding bee strains that survived >the viruses vectored by tracheal mites? But now we know (according to Bailey and others) that there is no vectoring. They just like the same conditions and so are associated. snip >Essential oils in my experience do not give effective control of >varroa But there may indeed be evidence now that if you allow a significant but non-lethal level of mites, bees may take to grooming them off, and where they also damage them, plus OMF's not letting undamaged live ones back, you may at least be able to select and breed bees that eventually will cope on their own. -- James Kilty