Mites. Everybodies got them. There is no question of that. There are no bees here that do not have them. There was a good write up in Bee Culture last month on whether to treat or not. Treat them in the fall regardless. I went a couple of years without treatments and my winter losses were 50%. That got hard after a while. I treated this year without checking mite counts. It is hard to keep a sick hive going after the mite counts have become overwhelming to save the hive. I think it is like the flu shot for my bees.