PerthshireBees · Perthshire, UK · Pests & Disease · Aug 12, 2026

"My bees have survived 3 years untreated" — genuinely curious how people weigh this against the drift argument

Not looking for a flame war, genuinely trying to think this through. A guy at our association — decent beekeeper, not a crank — hasn't treated for varroa in three years and his colonies are alive and productive. His view: treating props up weak genetics and we'll never get resistant stock if we keep medicating. The counterargument I keep coming back to: an untreated colony that collapses in autumn becomes a mite bomb, and its mites ride robbing bees straight into every hive within a couple of miles — including mine. So his experiment has non-consenting participants. But then the resistance people say somebody has to do the selection or we're on the treadmill forever. Both arguments seem... right? How do you square it — is there a responsible version of treatment-free, or is it only defensible in isolation?

#treatment-free#varroa#mite-bomb#resistance

▲ 12 votes 💬 5 replies

5 replies

ImkerinLena · Aug 12, 2026

Both arguments ARE right, which is why this debate never dies. The key question for your colleague: does he MONITOR? Treatment-free with monthly washes, and requeening or euthanising colonies that spike, is selection. Treatment-free without counting is just not looking. Also, three years with what starting stock? If he bought VSH-derived queens, the credit belongs to the breeder who did decades of selection — with treatments and instrumented insemination, ironically.

muglabalci · Aug 12, 2026

15 years, 60 hives. I have seen "survivor stock" claims come and go. The honest ones who last are doing what ImkerinLena describes: hard selection, splits from the best, no mercy for crashers. The rest are usually being resupplied by swarms of survivor-adjacent luck. I treat, but I also breed from my lowest-mite colonies, which quietly gets you the same direction without burning neighbours.

DrentseBij · Aug 13, 2026

The drift numbers are worth knowing: studies have measured hundreds of mites arriving in a healthy colony in the weeks a nearby colony collapses. That's how a hive goes from 2% to crisis in October with no treatment failure at all. In a dense area, treatment-free is a decision you're partly making for other people. In genuine isolation, different story entirely.

VTBeeHannah · Aug 13, 2026

As a second-year: this thread is gold. I lost my first colony last fall and my mentor reckons it was a mite bomb off someone else's deadout, not my own mites. It's a bit chilling reading the mechanism spelled out.

PerthshireBees · Aug 14, 2026

This landed about where I hoped — it's not treat vs don't-treat, it's monitor-and-select vs hope. I'm going to ask him straight out what his wash counts are. If he has data, that's a breeding program and I'll cheer him on. If he shrugs, I'll be keeping my distance downwind, so to speak.

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