> > * "Apistan & Co". are extremely powerful poisons; This is, I'm afraid, more of the usual OTT stuff regarding Apistan and its cousin Bayvarol. This opens a whole line previously done to death over and over again. Fluvalinate and Flumethrin, the active ingredients in the two treatments, are synthetic pyrethroids. This family of insecticides are amongst the most benign treatments available. They are man made adaptations of chemicals found in plants of the chrysanthemum family (pyrethrums), and, when correctly administered, place small, controlled dosages into the colony. They are nowhere near as noxious as formic acid. > > * NEVER, a MD, ND etc. will accept with open and light "heart" the >presence of these poisons in a traditional "pure", "natural" product; I agree, yet many people advocate taking propolis regularly. A UK based academic I was talking to fairly recently told me of research into contamination of propolis, and the samples were ones on retail sale, which revealed alarming levels of contaminants, especially lead which was present in such quantities as to be downright dangerous. Quibbling over of honey from Apistan treated colonies, and then advocating eating propolis which is a magnet for environmental contaminants, seems to me inconsistent. > > * the essential oils are NATURAL substances; in correct amounts they >will never hurt somebody, on the contrary, it will help to get rid of >many >diseases, or will give just a better respiration. The natural/synthetic debate is entirely bogus. Many natural substances are more noxious than many of the synthetic ones on offer. You just have to take each treatment on its merits and reach a balanced judgement. Whether the substance has been synthetically produced or obtained direct from nature is not particularly relevant. There are after all some EXTREMELY dangerous 'natural' poisons out there. > > * if you do not want the essential oils in your products, as >"contaminants", you can do the "aromatherapy" of your bee colonies, as >you do now with your chemical method, AFTER you will collect your >bee products, e.g. late in fall... Three years ago we bought 200 hives from the widow of someone who had been using Thymol. For exactly what I do not know and could not ask him as unfortunately he took the reason with him. The hives smelt differently, and it took two years to get rid of the smell. The honey produced from the hives smelt different, and was in fact rejected in Germany because of the smell and taste. We still catch the occasional whiff of it. I appreciate that when it is your own hive you may be able to put up with this, but try selling the honey on when its flavour and smell have been tainted! Authorities to whom I have talked warn that essential oils alone are NOT an effective way of dealing with varroa. Their effectiveness is less than current controls and is highly erratic. Unless you are operating on a small scale and can treat every colony in optimum conditions you should be very wary of adopting this strategy. Research is continuing all the time and an effective system may become available soon. > > > I do not believe that practicing alternative methods is a "threat" >towards the bee "industry"... Possibly not, but I would not want an 'alternative methods' user as my neighbour. I just would not want the re-invasion problem from those colonies of his/hers which were collapsing because treatment X or Y did not work. Using unproven/uncertain treatments is not a friendly act to those around you. > > I believe this is the ..salvation! Again possibly, but I feel that the bee breeders are those with whom the ultimate salvation lies. Murray -- Murray McGregor