sore tummy rub -- STR Yes I know this is a ridiculous name, that's on purpose to be a pin in the ass of my fellow CCD suffers who are either sitting on thier hands or walking about with thier eyes closed Do you have no sick hives? Are they doing nothing unusual or odd? Too shy -- or busy? I'm a northern bk I should be seeing this <b> last</b> Come on people I know of <b>NO</b> disease that have only 1 symptom I'd much rather be a lurker thank you so much, but .... I'm making 2 assumptions CCD is caused by mystery organism X I have X in my beeyard If CCD is infective then it is clear that it is an organism, poison plays a minor or no role There is tacit acknolegment already (don't unite, don't reuse equipement yet) If the Florida experiment confirms then there will be little doubt Symptoms of STR First seen on hoppers A clumsy, uncorridinated attempt to groom abdomen, repeatedly The rear legs seem stiff and wooden More severe: rubbing lower inner surfaces of rear legs together, repeatedly The feet are put down too close together Most severe: the rear legs are dragged, dragging cannot be seen easily on comb, set them on a piece of paper or lid Many bees display this behavior More signifigantly newly emerged also show this Over 90%, its hard to say all If X causes STR symptoms then this throws out nosema (a or c) since newly emerged will not have nosema Formic helps slightly, an OD (accidental) helps more (probably by killing worst infected) If I was to bet: X is a virus X's vectors are Nurse to larvae TM adult to adult Control TM and it fades away in 2-4 wks, depending on other factors Since acetic is hard to find I wonder if SO2 would disenfect X? Would certainly be cheaper dave ****************************************************** * Full guidelines for BEE-L posting are at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm * ******************************************************