Oxalic and Temperatures

[Finman]

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Clear you heads before you do someting.
You are mad with your mites.

 

[OXFORDBEE]

Doesn't that alone suggest Spring treatment with Thymol has to be ruled out?
By the time its warm enough for Thymol vapour to do much around the hive, you are going to be inviting a thymolised honey crop.

A good point. If I was considering using a thymol product in spring that did not have any impact on spring development, the product withdrawl period would be the major consideration.

FERA/DEFRA say you can use Apistan/Bayvarol during a honey flow (Managing Varroa, page 23), but you must prevent the strips contacting the product!
Doesn't seem 'nice', but apparently it can be done.
Though it won't help if you have resistant mites...

I've currently avoiding pyrethroid treatments due to concern about pyrethroid resistance in my area.

If you want to try something novel early in the season, you might consider experimenting with a thymolated pollen feed. Hivemaker posted a link to some US research showing that pollen-feeding could get Essential Oils into the brood cell just prior to capping (so that it could generate significant vapour within the sealed cell). They did however seem to be using Oregano oil (mainly Carvacrol) rather than Thymol.

Thanks for this. Any chance of a link please hivemaker...?

I think that those researching plural Oxalic tricklings have used them Autumn into Winter, rather than Winter into Spring. (So, minimising impact on Spring build-up?)

This is interesting and I'm looking into it at the moment.

I attended a lecture by an eminent beekeeper who was suggesting that the June gap was a very good time for a Varroa-controlling shook swarm (augmented with bait combs and feeding). I suspect there might be attractive alternatives to bait combs for hitting the residual phoretic mites.

Quite a few of my stocks get artifically swarmed so there is a natural break in brood rearing. However, I currently don't apply any control treatments to colonies that have been artifically swarmed due to time constraints, workload and apiary locations. Maybe I should do more about this but it's one more thing to do at rather hectic time of the year.

Personally, I think that sugar dusting (at every inspection) seems like a non-disruptive means of restricting varroa population growth.
Because it needs to be repeated, often - and is of limited effectiveness - it is scorned by the time-and-money commercial operators.
But, if you are prepared to repeat it, and very often, it should be a significant help. And crucially, it shouldn't do harm.

I'm not over keen about using sugar shakers but that doesnt mean I shouldn't keep an open mind on this one and do some backgound reading...

Thanks for the time you put into this reply!

 

[OXFORDBEE]

No problem in the spring - other than queenie goes off-lay at just the wrong time!

A good point, I can't say I've seen this but then I've not gone through every hive whilst treating. I have seen the effect on the brood nest when medication is applied in autumn and as a result this has been my main concern with spring treatments.

 

[Finman]

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Poor bees, poor mites!

gasifigation, fumigation, trickling, dusting, spraying, evaporation, shaking

in good method you may repeat it, even every week!

 

[oliver90owner]

in good method you may repeat it, even every week!

You shouldn't need to repeat it every week if the control is good.

 

[itma]

{feeding essential oils, in pollen and syrup feeds}
Thanks for this. Any chance of a link please hivemaker...?

Found it for you http://ddr.nal.usda.gov/bitstream/10113/35712/1/IND44273329.pdf

 

[OXFORDBEE]

Thanks for taking the time to find this....

 

[Finman]

Interesting - fifebeeks suggest 5-8 degrees, I've seen elsewhere recommendations that around or below freezing (though not too far) is best to ensure they are tightly clustered.

They also suggest November/December which seems a good month earlier than most suggest - because of their location perhaps? Appreciate that actual dates are misleading and the weather pattern will be a better guide.

The whole point is that the hive has no brood.

And it has nothing to do with clustering. Clustrring informs that bees do not have brood.

Even we can have some brood in November, and 30 alive mites after winter is too much.

You can treat colony with oxalic in the middle of summer. Like swarms and artificial swarms.

Some day ago I took all brood away from one hive, because it had really much mites. Then I made a trickling. I try to get one week brood to the hive and then I start to feed for winter. And day temps were 23C.

I give thymol later just before they start to cap new larvae.
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