Adony Melathopoulos wrote: > Having said that, I still wonder how resitance gets going in >this strangely unique pest system beekeepers face (a possibly highly >inbred pest which is seemingly adapted to nothing else but living >off honey bees). One thing to think about is that fluvalnate is a pyrethroid and as such is similar to compounds produced by some plants. Honey bees feeding on pollen from such plants may well absorb some of these compounds which the mites would be exposed to in feeding on the bees. As an example there was an article this winter in American Bee Journal reported that menthol ingested by honey bees was found in the haemolymph fairly quickly. Since many plants produce compounds to reduce feeding by insects, varroa mites may be exposed to more "unfriendly " compounds that we usually think and therefore need enzymes to detoxify such materials. Resistance to pesticides therefore could arise by both mutation and selection for traits already present in the population and the inbred nature of many varroa populations may actually greatly speed up this process. FWIW blane ****************************************** Blane White State Apiary Inspector Minnesota Department of Agriculture 90 W Plato Blvd St Paul, MN 55107 http://www.mda.state.mn.us phone 612-296-0591 fax 612-296-7386 [log in to unmask] ********************************************