If we're talking about honeybees, I think it's interesting that some of the things we've already alluded to.... We know some of the key culprits of weather, starvation that relates to weak colonies going into the fall and poor queens, and those types of things. Those factors have been identified, but it seems to me in terms of the research the attention tends to go in other directions.
We've heard about the neonicotinoids, and I've done a lot of work in that area. I don't want to say there needs to be less restriction in that area, but I think there needs to be more in the other areas. I think the media has exacerbated that issue, and there's a lot of Facebook science going on out there. I think it's important for people to be skeptical about some of the things you hear in terms of the research that's produced. You only tend to hear the bad news stories, but there's a lot of good stuff going on.
Overwintering does continue to be a major problem. I was talking to a beekeeper on Prince Edward Island last week as part of that tech transfer team I referred to. They're struggling with that, and I think that perhaps we need some work in basic IPM, or integrated pest management. We need, as Dr Kevan alluded to, some research on basic practices and what's going on. We sometimes don't know what beekeepers are doing. I think that's critical in order to identify exactly what the potential problems are.
When I think about things like integrated pest management in the field, monitoring for pests is a key part of that. If you look at the most recent overwinter report from CAPA, the Canadian Association of Professional Apiculturists, and if you look at something like varroa mite, which Mr. Nixon referred to as a key problem in Ontario, for instance, less than 60% of beekeepers were monitoring for varroa mite, yet almost 100% were treating for it. There's a bit of a disconnect. We're having these prophylactic applications against problems that may not even be there.
I think a lot of that extension of research could be useful in looking at what management practices are under way for pest control, how nutrition affects the health of bees going into the fall, and how it affects their coming out in the spring. Others may have comments on that, as well.