>Since mite predation can fully explain baseball-sized colonies in February up north, I invoke Occam's razor to support my contention that trying to blame some new, complex, mysterious cause is a waste of valuable resources. Peter, it has been shown time and again that CCD collapses are not correlated with mite levels. I suffered sudden collapses in my own operation that were in colonies with very low mite levels. This was the year prior to Jerry's naming of CCD. A few thousand colonies of other beeks also collapsed around me, but not in all operations. In a trial that I am currently running, we created CCD-like symptoms in pesticide-free, non-migratory, low mite, well-nourished colonies by inoculation with a mixed virus cocktail via sugar syrup. The colonies were previously, and intentionally, naturally infected with N ceranae also. It took about 9 days for major collapses to occur, and they have continued to occur for the last two months. Earlier this week, we inspected every comb of every colony in the trial, and observed some in every stage of CCD-like collapse. Randy Oliver *********************************************** The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html Access BEE-L directly at: http://community.lsoft.com/scripts/wa-LSOFTDONATIONS.exe?A0=BEE-L