Skyhook (and other inexperienced apiguard users),
I didn't close down the entrance
What exactly do you call an entrance?
You are right (well maybe), according to the instructions, but my immediate question to them would be: How do you define an entrance? That may well cause them to think or waffle a bit.
Example: National hive with historical solid floor. The floor one way up gives a 22mm wide opening (lets not say 'entrance' at this point). Invert the floor (perfectly acceptable because it was designed that way for that precise purpose) and it is down to about half. Now which is the correct way for the apiguard treatment because all hives would have a more than sufficient entrance at full width of the second option.
Therefore one can expect that a full width 22mm gap is not really simply an entrance as no more than half width of the hivee would make more than an entranc. Often an entrance to a feral colony would be a good deal less.
I rarely leave an entrance full width at 22mm and often it is much less than half the width of the opening. That is not the same as closing it down, actually making it slightly larger than it is needed. 22mm full width is an opening far larger than an entrance - just watch your bees, they will use one side, or section, nearly all the time.
The message I get from their instruction is not to 'restrict' the entrance, and that 'excess' ventilation is bad for efficacy. Stands to reason that a huge excessive opening is certainly not needed so I would already have reduced the opening to make the entrance, but not be restrictive to the bees. We know that thymol vapour is heavier than air, so will tend to 'fall out ' of the hive at the bottom.
Further consider those that have an entrance which is not at the bottom of the brood box - what should they do?
Yes, the instructions from suppliers of potentially damaging chemicals are always going to err on the side to their advantage (no, or fewer, claims for losses) - that is one reason why the users don't get as high efficacies as the more carefully controlled Vita results, I would suggest.
So the question comes down to what is an entrance? With a wasp threat, most people only reduce what I would call the opening to an entrance. I certainly rarely ever restrict an entrance, unless wasp activity is seriously threatening the colony.
A combination of low thymol vapourising rate, due to lower temperatures, and more simply floating harmlessly away from the hive meaning a 'lower than sufficient' concentration to terminate the mites, simply lowers the efficacy, possibly considerably.
Hope this make apiguard users think just a little more of what the manufacture really means when they glibly say 'entrance'.
Regards, RAB
