Thymol treatments

[Red Bee]

Hello

Is there a limit on the amount of times Apiguard or home made thymol treatments can be used in a season? If I remember corectly from the box, Apiguard can be used up to twice a year.

Thanks.

 

[drstitson]

since you need to treat for 4-6 weeks each time, thymol may stop queens laying but most importantly cannot be used with supers on, the answer is essentially once IMHO.

 

[Red Bee]

since you need to treat for 4-6 weeks each time, thymol may stop queens laying but most importantly cannot be used with supers on, the answer is essentially once IMHO.

Once because of the risk of tainting honey but if your not bothered about honey, how many times can you treat to get the varroa down.

 

[oliver90owner]

Simply reading the instructions on the box reveals "Maximum of two treatments per year".

When you do it is up to you and may depend on the circumstance. It may not take four to six weeks either.

RAB

 

[Red Bee]

Yep read the box as per my first post. Ok take away that I mentioned Apiguard. What's the reason for no more than two treatments per year?

 

[oliver90owner]

The first Goggle hit, when I searched for 'thymol effect on queen' was this:

Has anyone that uses any of the tymol products noticed an increase in superceure rates with their queens?

At the VSBA meeting there was a presentation on sperm vitality that appears to show a very negative result for use of thymol due to its effects upon the sperm stored by the queen from her mating flights.

The Virginia Tech research was dealing more with the thymol strips and gel, but I wonder if maybe fogging has a similar effect.

Maybe a quick search might shed more light on the subject?

RAB

 

[Red Bee]

Ok thanks will try google, just thought I'd try the forum first!