Treatment
For Healthy Honeybees
Disclaimer: Honeybees are a complex biological insect existing
in an even more complex environment consisting of many variables which makes
experimenting and testing difficult and at times seemingly impossible. Variables
such as temperature, humidity, hive strength, brood rearing, time of year,
area, nectar flow, hygienic behavior, etc. all have a direct bearing on end
results. Therefore, we make no claims of efficacy or safety using organic
acids or essential oils to control honeybee parasites or pathogens.
Only that we can reduce mite populations during certain times of the year;
especially when there is no brood, using certain essential oils like wintergree
oil in grease patties, tracking strips, paper towels and our new wick system.
During a dearth of nectar in the brood season, feeding essential oils appears
to help stimulate brood rearing by acting as a natural nectar
flow helping to keep the hives healthy. Using our low dose formic acid/HBH
fumigator during the height of the brood season seems to kill more than 90%
of the Varroa mites on the bees and in the cells with little, if any, harmful
affect to the brood, queens or young bees.
Mission Statement: Our mission is to find an
effective treatment regime using natural organic compounds to control parasitic
mites and pathogens in honey bee colonies in Northeastern North America, using
the least labor and cost possible. We plan to collaborate with interested
parties from different regions of North and South America, Europe and elsewhere
to further improve these treatments. We also invite interested parties from
these regions to work with us in a concerted effort to corroborate and/or
improve our treatments. We plan to disseminate our findings to fellow beekeepers
and interested parties worldwide on how to minimize acaricide use in beekeeping,
and possibly avoid such use in the future, by developing effective year round
treatment protocols in various climatic conditions, using organic compounds
to control parasitic mites and pathogens in honey bee colonies. We place the
welfare of the honey bee foremost in our efforts and recommend that all beekeepers
work together to initiate a worldwide network of scientists and beekeepers
for the efficient exchange of information on various methods of organic research
to control these devastating mites and pathogens they carry.
Note:
(1) We have discontinued
the use of compounds not on the EPA exempted active (25b) and inert ingredients
requirements (4a) of FIFRA. The only compound we are currently using not on
the exempted lists is Formic Acid which we are using in our low dose organic
acid experiments.
(2) We have found wintergreen oil
to be an active ingredient in the control of Tracheal and Varroa mites even
though it is on the FIFRA 4A Minimal Risk Inert list. To avoid any misleading
statements about wintergreen
oil we suggest you log-on
to the EPA sties below for detailed explanations of active and inert ingredients.
(3) Natural compounds like essential oils
being not standard make testing and claims of efficacy unpredictable.
In contrast, Synthetic compounds which are standard make testing and efficacy
predictable.
"In extensive
screening tests, many oils show significant acaricidal activity. Some
oils are repellent to V. jacobsoni, others are attractive, and some
cause mite mortality. However, of more than 150 essential oils and components
of oils tested, only very few have proven effective when applied in
hives in field trials. This is most probably due to the fact, that the
screenings tests used were incapable of predicting the acaricidal effect
under field conditions. Difficulty in obtaining standardised
essential oils also affects treatment predictability. Only
a combination of wintergreen
oil and thermal
treatment, an aerosol treatment of a thyme-sage oil mixture, and the
passive evaporation of thymol, oregano oil and marjoram oil in combination
with diluted formic acid have been used successfully for
mite control." Anton
Imdorf and Stefan Bogdanov
(Last Updated March 7, 2001)
This is a picture of my sister, to whom this research is dedicated.
Click
for dedication to her.
"If I did one thing in my life, I hope I did something for our Earth"
Marlene B. Noel 1998
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