Mites are coast to coast. Kansas wx doesnt seem to slow them down any. Those darn drones! They dont stay at their own hive. They galavant all over the place and bring other mites back with them in case you didnt already have enough. And drone larve takes a few more days than workers so the mites like to lay in drone brood and get a free generation out of the extra time. Florida heat you also are going to fight Small Hive Beetles. I dont have to worry about them so far.
http://www.beesource.com/forums/index.php
I have 3 top bar hives in my back yard. One of the standard treatments is “Oxalic Acid Vaporization”. Heating a small quantity of Oxcalic acid crystals, inside the hive until the acid sublimates into fine crystals all over the inside of the hive. Kills the mites, doesnt harm the bees. Treat each hive and stay ahead of the mites and your bees will live. There is a smattering of other things that can go wrong. Florida not having a winter will enter in to your management. Look around, you may be able to capture a swarm or help out another local by holding on to a hive or two for a while.
I have a blast doing it and am trying to get the grand kids into helping harvest the honey.
Started when I was 12 years old and worked them for 12 years. Ended up with 60 hives in the end.