Ken, I'm no expert either but my husband does research on bees all the time, he has written a booklet on IPM for bees and attends classes, lectures, and reads scientific material on such every day. You are correct that there seems to be no clear cause yet on CCD, but lots of contributing factors. If you dust the bees with sifted powdered sugar when you see a mite in your hives, the bees will clean the powdered sugar off of themselves and therefore, get rid of the Varroa mites. The county bee association just had a day long seminar here in our garden with a leading expert on bees. When they all suited up and went into the hives they found very healthy bees. They were expecting a normal Varroa mite count and found almost none. My husband treats his bees with essential oils among other things. As I mentioned before, it was my unscientific observation that when the pest control trucks are around there are lots of dead bees. Since my husband has been keeping bees and all of the neighbors love the honey most all of the neighbors have stopped the monthly pest control services. The young families come over often to ask questions about bees, or seek advice in planting and caring for fruit trees, vegetables and plants the bees would like. They all seem to be fascinated with the bees and the garden in general. It's nice seeing them plant fruit trees in their yards and sharing nature with their children. Carolyn