a John Chesnut snip followed by > my comment...
Nucs with OA-Glycerin towels had a much higher loss percentage than Amitraz treated ones. Not just from mites, but from otherwise inexplicable queen losses.
> As I have stated before as to my own hives (about 250 in number) I do not treat unless there is a student that need some hives for extra data point. However the hives at the Texas A&M bee lab I do test (monitor for mites) and treat (and on my instistance test afterwards). I have played around with Randy's description on oxalic and cardboard and imho it works best as a way to maintain varroa numbers (ie keep the number in check) than as a remedy to knock down varroa numbers. Any other observation on this would be highly appreciated.
> And a question for John Chestnut... could you give me a bit more detail on your observation concerning queen loss from OA/Glycerin vs Amitraz? Also not certain why you used the word inexplicable? I have suggested to folks that this loss is often an overlook side effect of treatment but have no numbers (ie rough estimate) as to what folks should expect. < imho...as a definable factor in bee management and giving folks an idea what their expectation should be even a wild ass guess is better than no information at all.
Gene in California and enjoying the wonderful weather and my wife's company for a very short period of time < ps todays temperature here a bit south of the SF bay was 82 and peaked at about 107 in Central Texas...
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