mites have recently (past year or so) been detected and appear to be spreading in much of the west indies, especially the eastern caribbean (dominica,st.lucia,among others)...along with africanization, they have presented new challenges/opportunities for beekeepers in the antilles...anyone have further information available? posted for information/discussion purposes from the cyberbee website link: http://bees.msu.edu/news/jamaica.html Jamaica's bee industry under attack by parasitic mite By Earl Moxam KINGSTON, Jamaica, April 14 (Reuters) - Jamaica's apiaries, famed for producing a unique honey flavored with tropical nectars, are threatened by a parasitic honeybee mite, the Jamaican Ministry of Agriculture said Wednesday. The Caribbean island's US$2 million honey industry employs 2,000 people, most of them on small farms whose apiaries are enriched by the nectar from over 13,000 tropical plant species. The mite, Varroa jacobsoni, was discovered infesting a honeybee colony in Bull Bay near Kingston on February 18. Subsequent inspections revealed the pest was well established at surrounding apiaries, the ministry said in a statement. ``The Varroa mite is probably responsible for greater losses in beekeeping than any other pest of the honeybee, and it is more serious in situations where its presence is not detected until the problem is very advanced,'' Roy Murray, principal researcher at the ministry's research station, told Reuters. Beekeeper Oliver Smith, whose apiary in Westmoreland is more than 100 kilometers (62 miles) from the site of the first discovery, said the problem already may be out of control. ``Within three years, the whole island is likely to be affected and about 50 percent of the farmers could be wiped out as a result,'' Smith said. ``The purity of this unique brand of honey is under serious threat if the chemicals for treating the mite are not properly handled,'' he warned. The agriculture ministry sought to reassure that proper safeguards would be put in place, with controlled quantities of the chemicals to be distributed only to registered beekeepers, accompanied by a public education campaign. The Varroa jacobsoni mite has spread around the world through commercial transport of bees and queens, migration of beekeepers and the accidental transport of bees on ships and aircraft.