It has been awhile since I have read Bee-L and this topic caught my attention. Haven't read the archives so will assume I am repeating what has already been said 400 times by telling you my experience with varroa. I live in a geographically isolated area and stayed free of varroa until approximately 1997. I didn't actually notice the mites until the spring of 1999 ( busy building a house ). By the spring of 1999 the mites were so populous I could find 3 or 4 in almost every drone cell. I treated with Apistan strips but half of my 400 hives died. I noticed many of the queens seemed to move in slow motion which I suspect was the result of a virus spread by the mites. I've monitored mite levels by pulling out drone larva and sporadically testing with Apistan strips and sticky boards over the following years. Had to treat spring and fall with Apistan to keep mite levels under control. In the spring of 2002 I decided I'd better give Apistan a rest so treated with formic acid pads. It was a cold spring and the treatment was not very successful. That summer was very cool and dry here and I got very little honey. By the first of August I was again finding 3 or 4 varroa in every drone cell, could even spot them on the odd bee. So on the first of August 2002 I pulled off all the bone dry empty honey supers and installed Apistan strips. In the spring of 2003 I tested mite levels using the alcohol wash method as described by Rob Currie on www.capabees.ca/eil.htm. This page also includes a chart reflecting treatment thresholds. The only change I made to his method was to put the sample bees from each hive in quart jars full of alcohol so that I could shake them for five minutes. Testing this spring showed mite levels were 2% so I did not treat. Tested again at the end of June and the mite level had not changed. Tested again at the end of August and mite levels were 2.5% to 3% so I again did not treat. There are too many variables to for me to know why this is. Some possible factors are: I started clipping all my queens last year so that there are fewer feral swarms reinfecting my hives, we had a very hot summer this year so that the mites could not reproduce as well, the one and only hobbyest within 50 miles of me gave up beekeeping this year, or because I put strips in early last fall there was a more effective mite kill. I would be interested in other people's theories on this. One thing many beekeepers noticed when their hives first became infected with varroa was that they had one or two bumper honey crops in the years before their hives collapsed. This was also the case with me. Is this just coincidence or do low mite levels somehow have a positive influence on honey crops? Our summer was hot and dry. Fortuantly we had enough rain in the spring to get an adequate honey crop. (100lbs/hive) That's about 100% better than last year. Ted :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: -- Visit www.honeybeeworld.com/BEE-L for rules, FAQ and other info --- ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::