>
> I have wondered this too, but it seems to me that the the concentration of
> formic acid vapour in the hive  is going to be a tiny fraction of the
> concentration of acetic acid vapour used to sterilise combs, as a result of
> the relatively small quantities used, slow evaporation and open hive
> entrance. My guess is that is wouldn't be effective, and as a general
> principle, I suspect that anything that would harm the relatively resilient
> nosema spores would also have an unfortunate effect on the bees in the
> hive.
>
> What do others think?
>
> James Morton
> London UK
>
 
There is an article that answers to the above mentioned
question by Ingemar Fries published in Proceedings of the
International Symposium on Recent Research on Bee Pathology,
September 5-7, 1990, Ghent, Belgium.  1991, 118-119. The last
concluding sentence of the summary reads as follows: "The results
show that treatment with formic acid for control of V. jacobsoni, as
applied in this study, does not significantly decrease the
infectivity of N. apis spores in honey bee faeces on the top bars of
treated combs. "
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*  Seppo Korpela                     Agricultural Research Center of Finland
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