Jim said:
OK, so the "soft" treatments for varroa appear to be temp/humidity
dependent.
So is Apistan, to a lesser extent.

Myself and others have never seen a temp/humidity problem with Apistan ,
checkmite or Mitacur.

Yes, I have first hand experience with all three. I also remember when
tracheal mites and varroa were talked about as a problem for the world but
of no concern for American beekeepers.

At bee meetings many did not want to even discuss the varroa problem going
on in *Europe* as those beekeepers  said:

 "Why worry as our legislators have closed our bordors and stopped the
varroa problem from happening in  the U.S. problem through smart
legislation."

Jim said:
 But how long before some of these "studies"
start recording the, ummm, temperature and humidity during application?

Recording the temperature  & humidity *in the brood nest* is not hard but
many still feel not worth the effort while running experiments and they are
right in my opinion unless doing testing on a varroa control WHICH IS
TEMPERATURE & HUMIDITY EFFECTED..

The reason being that most *strong* hives are very capable of maintaining a
brood nest normal temperature and humidity in the 50% and lower range. The
problem happens when humidity climbs up to the 75 to 85% range.

When testing on thymol, formic acid, etc. is done and there are periods of
high humidity for several days in the brood nest while treatment is on then
the tests are in my opinion FLAWED.

 To be fair flawed on the low side.

The only point I am trying to make is all beekeepers considering those type
controls need to be aware of possible problems related to temperature and
humidity during the treatment period.

The subject is too complicated for me to go into all details but to sum
things up extra days need to be added to the treatment period to make up for
each and every day  of high humidity as recorded .

When the supply of thymol or formic acid gel has been exhausted  extra days
will not work so another supply might need to be added to continue the
treatment (which could be against label).

As I have said for years on BEE-L :

When we are forced to use the temperature & humidity dependent controls for
varroa control ( possibly now in many areas of U.S.) some large beekeeping
operations (limited time) & some hobby beekeepers (limited knowledge)  will
see varroa control all over the scale.

Up until now varroa control for many consisted of ripping open a package and
sticking strips into a hive twice a year and  getting varroa control.

Now those will be talked about in many places as the *Good old days* of easy
varroa control.

The main reason of illegal dip use was to save money I have been told. Why
many continue to use those methods when beekeeping has moved into the black
( high honey prices) for many is beyound me.

Replacement of contaminated brood nest comb or your whole honey crop dumped
in a land fill does not make use of illegal dip a wise choice looking back.

The FDA is looking and checking.

I learned about temperature and humidity effecting control when trying to
figure out why I was not getting control with menthol treatments  when those
in other areas using the exact same methods were years ago using menthol to
control tracheal mites.

Bob

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