Bob writes: I agree basically with the conclusion but as far as chronic bee paralysis virus I have to say *as earlier Baily research* said which is the virus would have had little effect if not for the infestation of tracheal mites. Bailey certainly did not believe this at a later date: The natural control of the tracheal mite, Acarapis woodi, of the honey bee depends greatly on good foraging opportunities for bee colonies and on limited competition between colonies. The severe, widely-publicised disease of bees, referred to as ‘the Isle of Wight disease’ in Britain early in the last century when colonies were more numerous than subsequently, was wrongly attributed to the mite, which causes no overt symptoms. The disease was almost certainly caused by bee paralysis virus, which does cause the symptoms and *is independent of the mite*, and which is similarly associated with large densities of bee colonies. The natural control of the tracheal mite of honey bees L. BAILEY and J.N. PERRY 2001 *********************************************** 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