Hi Mike Bob & all

 > I'm not checking with a microscope, true.

If you do... You will find Nosema, it is not that it is present that is
the problem, it is endemic as far as I can tell.

I have no problem in losing a few hives in order to eliminate those
colonies that will totally succumb. In fact if I were to tot up the cost
of Fumidil and the cost of cleaning the equipment that got soiled while
I was using it, I would be surprised if it was not more costly to mask
the disease's presence.

 > There are others on this list that have treated infected equipment
 > with Acetic acid. If I remember correctly, the cost was minimal.
 > Dave C would know, as it seems to be a common practice in the UK.

It is not costly in terms of acetic acid fumigation, but I used to
scrape everything down and scrub with scouring powder as well, followed
by caustic soda (lye). It was this laborious cleansing that would be
considered costly, but only in terms of labour, not materials.

The need for cleaning and the colony losses disappeared completely in
two or three years. Once the losses were out of the system there was
only one case of colony death due to Nosema in the entire rest of the
time (about 17 years). Losses while the weeding out was going on
probably amounted to about 3% per year.


Regards & Best 73s, Dave Cushman, G8MZY
http://website.lineone.net/~dave.cushman or http://www.dave-cushman.net
Short FallBack M/c, Build 6.02/3.1 (stable)

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