Essential oil use

[hedgerow pete]

I have over the years heard of many people putting small quanities of essential oils in with there bee's. This i find a fasinating subject can anyone add to my poor knowledge i have listed what little i know below

leamon oil for a swarm lure
tea tree and winter green for a pollen pattie( never heard of why)
thyme oil for varroa mites
lavender oil for in the sugar syrup

Now before you ask no i dont know how much to use or when thats why i am asking you lot ??

so what can you add to the list and why and how much

 

[Hombre]

lemon grass oil for the lure
Tea Tree and Wintergreen oil in a grease pattie was as a treatment against tracheal mites (in your link re patties)
Can't help with quantities I'm afraid.

 

[Hivemaker.]

Oil of wintergreen,methyl salicylate, was used in liquid form in a small bottle with short wick,placed in the corner of the hive and even left over winter to control acarine,and it stinks the hive out. Better and faster control of acarine is by using formic acid, a few days and they are dead.

180ml boiling water
1/2 teaspoon lechithin
30gm thymol crystals
150ml isopropyl alcohol

Add 20ml of this pre mix to each gallon/5lt of thick syrup.
the bee's love it.

 

[Finman]

Wikipedia

Methyl salicylate (oil of wintergreen)
Safety and medicinal use

In pure form, methyl salicylate is toxic, especially when taken internally. A single teaspoon of methyl salicylate contains 7g of salicylate,[9] which is equivalent to more than twenty-three 300 mg aspirin tablets. The lowest published lethal dose is 101 mg/kg body weight in adult humans.[10] It has proven fatal to small children in doses as small as 4 mL.[3] A 17 year-old cross-country runner at Notre Dame Academy on Staten Island, died April 3, 2007, after her body absorbed high levels of methyl salicylate through excessive use of topical muscle-pain relief products.[11]

Look more http://www.medicinenet.com/methyl_salicylate_and_menthol-topical/article.htm

.

 

[Hivemaker.]

Better not go drinking it then Finman,obviously not toxic to bee's as it was used in vapour form,but most likely the reason its not used nowadays, frow mixture was not to clever either,worked on killing the acarine mites by killing the bee's in many cases,followed by the beekeeper,main ingredient nitrobenzene,have some here supplied by BDI want some.

 

[Finman]

.More load on wintergreen oil

http://www.scorecard.org/chemical-profiles/summary.tcl?edf_substance_id=119-36-8#hazards



Human Health Hazards

Recognized: --
Suspected:
Cardiovascular or Blood Toxicant ....RTECS
Gastrointestinal or Liver Toxicant ......RTECS
Neurotoxicant ...........................RTECS
Reproductive Toxicant........... NTP-R
Respiratory Toxicant .............RTECS

Hazard Rankings
Data lacking; not ranked by any system in Scorecard.


.

 

[BKF Admin]

Wintergreen? is that in Deep Heat ointment?

 

[Finman]

Wintergreen? is that in Deep Heat ointment?

Click to Order [/B]- Deep Heat Ointment contains: St. John's wort flowering top, Lobelia herb & seed, Arnica flower, Calendula flower, Ginger root, White Oak bark, Marshmallow root, Plantain herb, Mullein herb & flower, Black Walnut hull, Gravel root, Wormwood herb, Scullcap herb, White Willow bark, Horsetail herb, Habanero Cayenne pepper. In a base of Wintergreen essential oil, Menthol Crystal, Olive Oil, Aloe vera oil, Birch essential oil, and Beeswax.

http://www.herbsfirst.com/descriptionsWB/DeepHeatOintment.html

Massage into areas of sore muscles or injury. Do not apply to open wounds.

 

[BKF Admin]

Can you use that if you take antidepressants???

 

[Hivemaker.]

Yes,and found naturally,but the dangerous stuff is pure form.also used as food flavouring,like chewing gum.

wiki. more.
Plants containing methyl salicylate produce this organic ester (a combination of an organic acid with an alcohol) most likely as an anti-herbivore defense. If the plant is infested with herbivorous insects, the release of methyl salicylate may function as an aid in the recruitment of beneficial insects to kill the herbivorous insects.[1] Aside from its toxicity, methyl salicylate may also be used by plants as a pheromone to warn other plants of pathogens such as tobacco mosaic virus.[2] Numerous plants produce methyl salicylate in very small amounts.

Plants producing it in significant amounts (readily detected by scent) include:

* Most species of the family Pyrolaceae, particularly those in the genus Pyrola.
* Some species of the genus Gaultheria in the family Ericaceae.
* Some species of the genus Betula in the family Betulaceae, particularly those in the subgenus Betulenta.
* All species of the family Spiraea, also called the Meadowsweets.

[edit] Commercial production

Methyl salicylate can be produced by esterifying salicylic acid with methanol. Commercial methyl salicylate is now synthesized, but in the past, it was commonly distilled from the twigs of Sweet Birch (Betula lenta) and Eastern Teaberry (Gaultheria procumbens).
[edit] Uses
Chick embryo that was treated with methylene blue to stain the skeleton, then cleansed with 2 or 3 ethanol washes, and treated with methyl salicylate to make the surrounding tissues transparent

It is used as a rubefacient in deep heating liniments, and in small amounts as a flavoring agent at no more than 0.04%.[3] It is also used to provide fragrance to various products and as an odor masking agent for some organophosphate pesticides. If applied in too high quantities it can cause stomach and kidney problems.[citation needed]

It is one of many compounds that is attractive to males of various species of orchid bees, who apparently gather the chemical to synthesize pheromones; it is commonly used as bait to attract and collect these bees for study.[4]

Methyl salicylate also has the ability to clear plant or animal tissue samples of color, and as such is useful for microscopy and immunohistochemistry when excess pigments obscure structures or block light in the tissue being examined. This clearing generally only takes a few minutes, but the tissue must first be dehydrated in alcohol.[citation needed]

Methyl salicylate, though its source plants are not true mints, is also used as a mint in some kinds of chewing gum and candy, as an alternative to the more common peppermint and spearmint oils. It can also be found as a flavoring of root beer. It is also a potentially entertaining source of triboluminescence; when mixed with sugar and dried, it gains the tendency to build up electrical charge when ground. This effect can be observed by crushing wintergreen Life Savers candy in a dark room.[5][6]

Methyl salicylate can also be used as a transfer agent, to produce a manual copy of an image on a surface.[7]

Methyl salicylate is added in small amounts to glacial acetic acid to lower its freezing point while travelling in cold countries.

Methyl salicylate is also used as a simulant or surrogate for the research and investigation of the chemical warfare agent, sulfur mustard due to its similar chemical and physical properties.[8]

Methyl salicylate is one of several antiseptic ingredients in Listerine mouthwash produced by the Johnson & Johnson company.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methyl_salicylate

 

[hedgerow pete]

has anyone heard of any other oils in use?

 

[Finman]

Poison arrow frog

 

[Hivemaker.]

Castrol GTX. 3IN ONE. castrol R.

 

[hedgerow pete]

thanks for that it made me laugh, being serious for once , the sewing of all these sequins on the new suit is getting a little much, this whole essential oil thing fasinates me

 

[BKF Admin]

Spearmint,Thyme,Pepermint,Lavender,there are loads used by different recipes.

 

[Finman]

Title: Use of essential oils for controlling Varroa destructor in honey bee colonies.
Personal Authors: Hu FuLiang, Zhu Wei, Li YingHua
Author Affiliation: College of Animal Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310029, China.
Editors: No editors
Document Title: Chinese Bulletin of Entomology

Abstract:
Essential oils and essential oil components offer an attractive alternative to synthetic acaricides for the control of Varroa destructor. Many kinds of essential oils and their components have been evaluated in laboratory screening tests and most of them show excellent acaricidal activities. However, few of them have proven successfully when tested in the field. Thymol and thymol blended with other essential oils or essential oil components offer a promising exception. Mite mortality is over 90% when these formulations are used. In addition, their residues in honey are low, even after long-term treatments. Along with other measures, essential oils can be used in the integrated control of Varroa jacobsoni. Efforts are necessary to optimize the use of these substances.


Publisher: Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences

 

[MJBee]

I found a small bottle of lemon grass oil in a delli last year and as an experiment put 3 drops just inside the entrance of one of four identical nucs. Within an hour there were dozens of bees in and around that nuc. swapping location confused the bees for about ten minutes then they were back to the "oiled" nuc.

This year I'm going to try it in a couple of bait hives - the effect lasts for about 3 weeks. By the way the nucs were empty ie no frames or wax.
Mike

 

[Hivemaker.]

Iterestig thread on the use of esential oils with some extra links on beesource,not sure if you need to be signed in to read.

http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?t=218469