Interesting discussion. I am with Jim in that IPM does not generally use 
treatments before treating. You tend to defeat the purpose. Farmers will 
count the number of pests per unit area and treat when whatever criteria 
is met. They do not go out and spray and count the dead critters on the 
ground.That is just not cost effective. IPM is designed to control costs 
and the amount and timing of pesticide application, so the farmer gets 
the max from his pest control dollar.

What Randy is doing is not wrong at all, but it is not IPM. Many 
different Varroa and Tracheal treatments followed this route, FGMO 
probably is classic. It was touted as the end all for varroa treatments, 
but when you looked closely behind the curtain, there was always 
something else- even Apistan! Apistan was applied to get mite counts and 
then FGMO was touted to work because of low mite counts. The mites were 
killed by Apistan, not FGMO.

Many techniques for controlling Varroa include intermediate treatments 
of something before you get to WMDs. FGMO is actually a good 
intermediate treatment for colonies during nectar flow since it will not 
contaminate the honey. Sugar dusting is the same. What is happening is 
you are treating for Varroa but only for control. Mite count is an 
adjunct. In essence you are applying a control, not a mite dropper. You 
will not get the 97% efficacy of treatments like OA when applied to a 
broodless colony, but you will set back the mites until you can nuke 
them. But it is not IPM. It is a Varroa control method.

IPM would be natural mite fall with measurements (which Jim has 
discussed) followed by some action. The action might be FGMO or sugar 
dusting  if loads were high in late summer during nectar flows, then OA 
in the fall. The summer treatment is to buy time, if needed. Otherwise, 
you just count and treat when whatever threshold is reached.

I realize that some may count this as semantics, but it is best that we 
label what we do correctly. Which seems to be Jim's argument.

Bill Truesdell
Bath, Maine

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