>Does anyone on this list know of research directed toward the development >of a pheromonal or other chemical attractant that might lure those little >red rascals away from the bees? John, The only research that I am aware of in this line was reported in an American Bee Journal article (would have to look to locate). It showed that the Varroa mite was especially attracted to the drone larvae pheremone. That is why some people are using drone cell traps. You simply let the queen lay drone eggs (?) in the cells. Then when they are mostly capped over you discard them. Maybe someday we can get the particular pheremone produced by the drone larvae (it was named in the article) in a bottle. That would be nice. gh [log in to unmask]