A Much Simpler Explanation of Why Mite Bombs Happen

Some hives are bad at dealing with mites. Pretty simple huh? If mite bombs were a real thing and were as bad as purported, then a mite bomb would take down just about every hive in the vicinity. But they don't. Instead, often, the mite bomb cannot even be identified in the area, and is only assumed to exist. What does happen is this: Let's construct a hypothetical hive. This hive is bad at dealing with mites. Even though it might have been treated, it is bad at dealing with mites, so the random mite load of all the bees in the area would tend to concentrate with that hive, they don't bite mites, they don't chew them out, they basically just ignore them, and so mites build up in this hive. The hives very nearby are going to tend to receive some of this load due to drifting and robbing and if they can't deal, they'll start suffering too, but some, even many of them may be able to deal with mites, or even deal with them well. So these don't suffer, even with an increased incoming mite load. Hives that are very mite tolerant or resistant will absorb this load and eliminate the mites, becoming what we call "mite black holes." They suck in mites, never to be seen again. But in the mite bomb hives, generally sourced from non-resistant or tolerant commercial stock, the mite load increases to damaging proportions and they collapse, forming a "mite bomb" or maybe a "mite big bang?" These hives, it seems, do increase the mite load around, but again, it is the responsibility of the nearby hives to deal with their own mite loads. Those of us who are in the habit of catching swarms will have these mite bangs most years. And we have been told many times about these mite bombs, but yet, they don't seem to do much if any damage to the surrounding hives. Mite bombs never seem to knock out whole yards. They haven't knocked out any of mine. When I catch a good batch of swarms, I start a new yard with them, so they're all in the same spot for the first year. Inevitably, around a third of the fresh swarms will die, mite collapse, yet the rest in the yard don't seem to suffer. From the early days of this "mite bomb" idea, I have never warmed to it. It just doesn't seem to fit what I've seen and doesn't seem to fit the data of the people around me. I know a good number of people who catch a lot of swarms and bring them home and some of them have mite collapses, and none of them seem to lose many, if any hives, to mites caused by mite bombs of the hives next door. So I conclude that mite bombs are just hives that don't deal with mites well and collapse. And any hive in the vicinity that also collapses is also a hive that doesn't deal with mites well. These are hives that in the final analysis need to be eliminated one way or another. What better test than real world conditions?