Bob Harrison said:

> An excellent article on Thymol is on page 489 of the June 2003
> American Bee journal... results are all over the scale .
> From a low of 64% (Imdorf 1999, Ellis 2001) to reported 99% control
> from overseas studies.

> Tymol is temperature dependent (and in my opinion humidity dependent
> to a point).

but Peter Edwards said:

> I find that here (Midlands, UK) treatment with powdered thymol crystals
> in March and August (i.e. before and after the flow) gives excellent
> control with no contamination of wax or honey.

and Max Watkins said:

> Many, many beekeepers are using thymol-based treatments WITHOUT the
> backup of an Apistan, Perizin or Apivar type treatments

So, there appears to be a difference between the results seen in Europe
and the UK and the results seen here in the US.  Why?  Different
formulations?  Different application methods?

Why is it that my wife can take recipes from the King Arthur Flour
"baking circle" mailing list, and reliably reproduce any recipe posted
without any trouble?  Could it be that bakers inherently realize something
that beekeepers and entomologists don't - that one must both describe the
formulation (what to use), the process, (how to apply), AND the application
environment (time and temperature)?

OK, so the "soft" treatments for varroa appear to be temp/humidity dependent.
So is Apistan, to a lesser extent.  But how long before some of these "studies"
start recording the, ummm, temperature and humidity during application?

One would think, given the bee's very tight control of both temperature
and humidity in the immediate brood area, that a hive with honey supers
removed would maintain a tighter temp/humidity range than the general
environment.

So what do we need?  "Wind tunnel" tests of populated hives?
Several hundred thermocouples to collect data from all over the hive?

                jim

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