Thymol Varroa Treatment.

[BKF Admin]

For members who decide to make their own Thymol treatment

Original post made by Hivemaker:

The mixture is 8 grams thymol to 12 grams oil,sunflower,rape,olive or even old chip oil,multiply this measurment to make more.

warm in old pan outdoors until all the thymol crystals have dissolved then add 20 ml of this mixture to a piece of the green absorbent garden oasis(not the grey one) this is the size of a sardine tin or half pound cut comb container. two inches wide, three and a half long, and 8 ml thick. put oasis in container then put liquid on, leave overnight to soak in,will soak in better if warm.

To treat bee's cut this in half and place the two parts on top of brood frames over the brood area. reduce entrance to about 2 inches and block of any feed holes,and mesh floors,give second treatment in two weeks and another 2weeks later.

I just move the previous treatment to the outside of the brood box on the edges,some bee's chew this right away to nothing others don't touch it some just nibble the corners,makes no differene as it still works really well.look at varroa floor the next day,mites will be dead. needs to be used in warmish weather and some bee's may hang out of entrance for a couple of days others take no notice,no bad effect on bee's or queens,helps to prevent chalkbrood, much more effective than apiguard.

I believe this was tested on around 5000 hives over a period of time in spain,i have used this and this alone for the past five years,and it does not hurt if left in. nucs use half this dose.I also tried formic in nassenhieder evaporators and canadian blast method,good for killing queens.do not use when supers are on,can bee used on swarms as soon as queen stars to lay but before brood is sealed or if bad build up of mites in summer by doing artificial swarm and treating the broodless bee's for short time and parent colony until all young bee's have emerged and the mites killed.

Admin edit:

I follow the recipe above with the only difference being I fold a Kleenex into 4 and add a single dose,then put into a plastic container(Curry size)and add a sheet of grease prood paper,I then do the same with the next Kleenex and so on.

When I get to the hives I add one tissue per hive discarding the grease proof paper.

 

[JCBrum]

Admin, well done with making this a sticky.

How much mixture do you put on the Kleenex as a single dose per hive ? Is it 20 ml ? about 4 or 5 teaspoons ? does the tissue hold that much ok ?

JC.

 

[Frisbee]

A teaspoon is 5ml

Frisbee

 

[JCBrum]

Hmmm, a medical one or a cooks one perhaps, but most ordinary teaspoons are less than that. Try a few. JC.

 

[Poly Hive]

I am buying accurate scales as I had a very NASTY episode with oxalic which I put down to bad measurements by me. I am not so sure about that now but I am going to remove one element from the equation, ie a good set of scales.

PH

 

[Hivemaker.]

I absolutely agree with you PH on being accurate on the oxalic,but the thymol is not critical at all,you will do no harm if its more,but it just won't be so effective if its a lot less,like treating the nuc's you just cut one pad in half,one half may contain slightly more thymol than the other. Some very accurate scales sold on e bay,i bought some that only weigh max 20g for weighing out tiny ammounts of gentomycin.

 

[Poly Hive]

Many thanks Hivemaker. Appreciated.

PH

 

[RoofTops]

Not sure about overdosing doing no harm. I treated an Apidea with a bit of Apiguard (they had mites) and thought I had cut down the dose enough - but clearly, as it turned out, not enough. Within half an hour the bees were hanging outside the hivelet and remained there for a for a couple of days even after I had scraped off the excess.

 

[Hivemaker.]

Don't know what a treatment would be for an apidea,i just remove the queens,and shake out all the bee's at end of season,but even in big hives some bee's will hang out for a few days,while others of the same size take no notice at all,some queens reduce or stop laying for a few days,some don't.Suppose if you wanted to go to some extreme and put 1kg in the hive then yes that would be overdosing,but you would have to be a complete nutter to do so.

 

[clodhopper]

Thymol Treatment

For members who decide to make their own Thymol treatment

Original post made by Hivemaker:

The mixture is 8 grams thymol to 12 grams oil,sunflower,rape,olive or even old chip oil,multiply this measurment to make more.

warm in old pan outdoors until all the thymol crystals have dissolved then add 20 ml of this mixture to a piece of the green absorbent garden oasis(not the grey one) this is the size of a sardine tin or half pound cut comb container. two inches wide, three and a half long, and 8 ml thick. put oasis in container then put liquid on, leave overnight to soak in,will soak in better if warm.

To treat bee's cut this in half and place the two parts on top of brood frames over the brood area. reduce entrance to about 2 inches and block of any feed holes,and mesh floors,give second treatment in two weeks and another 2weeks later.

I just move the previous treatment to the outside of the brood box on the edges,some bee's chew this right away to nothing others don't touch it some just nibble the corners,makes no differene as it still works really well.look at varroa floor the next day,mites will be dead. needs to be used in warmish weather and some bee's may hang out of entrance for a couple of days others take no notice,no bad effect on bee's or queens,helps to prevent chalkbrood, much more effective than apiguard.

I believe this was tested on around 5000 hives over a period of time in spain,i have used this and this alone for the past five years,and it does not hurt if left in. nucs use half this dose.I also tried formic in nassenhieder evaporators and canadian blast method,good for killing queens.do not use when supers are on,can bee used on swarms as soon as queen stars to lay but before brood is sealed or if bad build up of mites in summer by doing artificial swarm and treating the broodless bee's for short time and parent colony until all young bee's have emerged and the mites killed.

Admin edit:

I follow the recipe above with the only difference being I fold a Kleenex into 4 and add a single dose,then put into a plastic container(Curry size)and add a sheet of grease prood paper,I then do the same with the next Kleenex and so on.

When I get to the hives I add one tissue per hive discarding the grease proof paper.

Alternative Varroa Treatment
2 Parts Thymol
1 Part Surgical Spirit
USE DIGITAL SCALES AND 10 ML SYRINGE AS OVERDOSE WILL KILL BEE’S
Example 500gms Thymol + 250gms Surgical Spirit
Dissolve Thymol in Surgical spirit,
Use 8 ml in a syringe on two kitchen towel Squares folded down to approx 50mm x 100mm or 2”x 4”
Use another 8 ml on two more towels folded the same and place on top of brood frames
One each side of the brood.
Repeat after 14 days!!
Boots Surgical spirit 500ml £3.25
Thorne’s Thymol crystals 500gm £18.48
This will treat approx 24 hives twice.




********* no more varroa

 

[clodhopper]

Thymol Treatment

Alternative Varroa Treatment
2 Parts Thymol
1 Part Surgical Spirit
USE DIGITAL SCALES AND 10 ML SYRINGE AS OVERDOSE WILL KILL BEE’S
Example 500gms Thymol + 250gms Surgical Spirit
Dissolve Thymol in Surgical spirit,
Use 8 ml in a syringe on two kitchen towel Squares folded down to approx 50mm x 100mm or 2”x 4”
Use another 8 ml on two more towels folded the same and place on top of brood frames
One each side of the brood.
Repeat after 14 days!!
Boots Surgical spirit 500ml £3.25
Thorne’s Thymol crystals 500gm £18.48
This will treat approx 24 hives twice.




********* no more varroa

 

[steve1958]

Alternative Varroa Treatment
USE DIGITAL SCALES AND 10 ML SYRINGE AS OVERDOSE WILL KILL BEE’S

You have managed to scare me enough to stop me trying this.

 

[oliver90owner]

Steve,

As a beginner, go with apiguard.

Cost is not prohibitive for a few hives. And safer if you are not confident.

Your one hive would need such a small amount you would need accurate measurement. (For polyhive in the other post, not sure why he would want accurate scales - he should be using a whole tub of thymol at one go!)

Tip - for half a tub you don't need to 'weigh' it, you balance it on the old type kitchen scales. No weights, just split all into two equal halves in two identical containers.

Regards, RAB

 

[BKF Admin]

Clodhopper you say use surgical spirit but would an oil based treatment not also help with controlling acarine ?

Also could you re-check your doses in the post above.

 

[Jonathan]

I used this tyreatment last year with excellent results and am doing the same this year. I appreciate accuracy is pretty vital with the Thymol but what about the oil? I am only splitting hairs really 'cos it's easy to put 12 grams as any other but what about if it was 10 grams or 15 grams of oil - would it make much of a difference?

 

[Frisbee]

I used this tyreatment last year with excellent results and am doing the same this year. I appreciate accuracy is pretty vital with the Thymol but what about the oil? I am only splitting hairs really 'cos it's easy to put 12 grams as any other but what about if it was 10 grams or 15 grams of oil - would it make much of a difference?

Well yes it would as you are altering the ratio of oil to thymol, when you measure out the mixed product to put on the oasis if you used 15gms of oil to 8 gms thymol then you will be under dosing. In actual fact the ratio of thymol to oil is two thirds - 8gm thymol to 12 gms oil so if you weigh out 15gms oil then it's 10gms thymol. That original recipe is Hivemaker reducing it for us muggles as he has 100's of hives so will be mixing kilos. If you took a Thorne's thymol container which has 100gms in just add it to 150gms of oil. Simple. Double check the stated weight of thymol first.

Frisbee

 

[Jonathan]

Well yes it would as you are altering the ratio of oil to thymol, when you measure out the mixed product to put on the oasis if you used 15gms of oil to 8 gms thymol then you will be under dosing. In actual fact the ratio of thymol to oil is two thirds - 8gm thymol to 12 gms oil so if you weigh out 15gms oil then it's 10gms thymol. That original recipe is Hivemaker reducing it for us muggles as he has 100's of hives so will be mixing kilos. If you took a Thorne's thymol container which has 100gms in just add it to 150gms of oil. Simple.

Frisbee

This is a bit theoretical 'cos it's easy to mix it correctly but this is where I get a touch confused. If you mix only one dose ie 15 grams of oil and 8 grams of Thymol and it all goes onto one piece of oasis and that goes into the hive are you still underdosing? I can see wheat you are saying re the underdosing but only the oil is varying which will have no effect on Varroa. The Thymol is the same ie 8 grams. I guess where I am coming from is what does the oil do ie does it control the release of the Thymol vapour or is it merely a medium by which you get the Thymol to soak into the oasis?

 

[Bcrazy]

Hivemaker,
I wanted to see the compound makeup for gentamycin, and came across this little gem.

Some very accurate scales sold on e bay,i bought some that only weigh max 20g for weighing out tiny ammounts of gentomycin.

Like all aminoglycosides, when gentamicin is given orally, it is not effective. This is because it is absorbed from the small intestine, and then travels through the portal vein to the liver, where it is inactivated. Therefore, it can only be given intravenously, intramuscularly or topically.

So is the treatment of gentamycin (similar to any other mycin) really effective?

Regards;

 

[Frisbee]

This is a bit theoretical 'cos it's easy to mix it correctly but this is where I get a touch confused. If you mix only one dose ie 15 grams of oil and 8 grams of Thymol and it all goes onto one piece of oasis and that goes into the hive are you still underdosing? I can see wheat you are saying re the underdosing but only the oil is varying which will have no effect on Varroa. The Thymol is the same ie 8 grams. I guess where I am coming from is what does the oil do ie does it control the release of the Thymol vapour or is it merely a medium by which you get the Thymol to soak into the oasis?

Yes I see what you are saying.........and yes that will probably be fine, although I'm no expert but as the thymol is partially evaporating out then yes the dosage will be the same. It just seems a bit fiddly to me to mix up 8/12 gms at a time

BTW I made a technical cock-up on my original post which I've rectified but it is now in yours as a quote so I would appreciate if you'd go and edit it to correct it in case anyone reads it and uses it for the mix - I put 200gms oil where it should be 150. Thanks.

Frisbee

 

[Hivemaker.]

Please weigh the thymol crystals,i have had several 500g and 2kg containers of thymol crystals,and the weight has not been the one stated on the label,some being well over.