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I've now applied 140ml/65% formic acid to 4 hives, used an insulated eke and appear to have had reasonably consistent evapouration over 8 days. I had expected to see lots of dead juvenile varroa on the sticky boards, but only the odd bee larvae and varroa adult. The queens are laying well.
This is a first attempt, how do you measure success or is this a sign of no affect?
Hi nemphlar
put on a thymol treatment and see what drops over the next fortnight
Thats what I would do anyway
Me too. A colony which appears to be varroa free can drop a couple of hundred on the first day.
thanks for the response, formic treatments have a bewildering number of recommended procedures in both time and concentration, but outwith experiments carried out within enclosd spaces I haven't yet been able to find a simple way to check effectivesness.
I have been feeding thymol treated syrup since coming off fumidil B in early May in an attempt to recover from a very poor winter. or do you mean a more concentrated type of thymol application.
Not very objective but all 4 recovering hives and queens seem to be pushing on after the treatment.
I was referring to a thymol varroa treatment such as Apiguard which is a thymol paste usually delivered in two doses over a 4 week period after the supers are off.
I have used Apiguard the past two years and found it to be very effective - especially when followed up by Oxalic acid in the dead of winter when the colony is broodless.
Thymol treated syrup can be effective against nosema but not sure about varroa.
nemphlar
There was an earlier thread where this was covered in some depth
and a recipe or two for home made effective thymol treatments
http://www.sbai.org.uk/sbai_forum/sh...hlight=sponges
Nip over there and check it out
:)
Thanks to both, as a DIY beke I'll try the thymol recipe and sponge application. The 4 queens are laying well and I'm hoping, building to give them a chance of winter survival, have you noticed, will this thymol treatment affect/ slow the build up?
Interesting chart you published aong other things highlighted that even in hives with apparently no natural mite drop there was a count after treatment. I found similar results and wondered about the value of natural drop as an indicator. thanks again
No it won't affect laying what it might do is affect any wax building as sometimes you will find wax scales on your insert.
Some but not all bees won't come to a contact feeder at the same time as treatment so its best done around now before winter feeding
Unless the floor insert is sealed then , especially in Summer, all sorts of wasps beetles etc get in and make off with anything tasty.
The cardboard flappy type don't tell you much I feel :)