MITES are NOT the problem, get over it!!!!!!! When will some of you realize that pesticides are causing these problemes. The challenge comes in the forums of chemicals that are being used, they effect the bee hive, a biological unit , at the core of its operation in a way we do not understand yet! And it is different than a spray kill of yester year, That is a products sprayed and you have thousands of dead bees within a 24 to 48 hours period on the ground in front of the hive.
I personally have beene drastictly effected by growth regulators that were sprayed to kill grasshoppers, hives full of honey, capped brood and no bees, & no mites in the dead brood!!!!!. Thats from the Idaho area. From North dakota we have extracted many drums of honey from the dead outs, solid frames of capped honey in singles, hives dead by 1 st week in Oct, yet they are plugged full of sunflower honey, which bloomed in late august, so there had to be bees to make the honey, again no mites in dead brood!!!!!
In years past we have found mites in the dead hives , not this year.
Prior to repsonding , please take a deep breath and as my friend the research scientist that test crop chemicals & pestides for the major companies told me last week, Something bigger is happening here and we have not figured out how to see it.
My main suspect is the sygergistic reactions of the many diferent chemicals in the hives, as we all know the hive is a big sponge and the bees collect everything in the area. What the triggeres are, do not know, but I have seen the results this year.
The other wired thing is that I am see tones of wax moths , that we have not seen for years. They are growing in all dead outs from CA, ID & ND. This is conffusing to me.