> ...Is there ever a concern or caution to putting brood combs exposed to
> Apistan into a honey collecting position?
>
> Our previous discussions on this list have lead me to understand that
> Apistan ingredients are locked into the wax and will not leach out into
> the honey. However,  I have never seen a discussion or study to date that
> tests for Apistan residues in honey. Is there such a study?...
 
Well, I'm not an expert on this; maybe Max will respond since it is his
baby, but in the meantime, since this was addressed to me, I'll take a
whack at it and hope that others will add their perspectives.
 
First, I haven't used Apistan (R) since the eighties when a gov't
inspector sampled our hives to determine if varroa existed here.  As of
yet it does not.  However,  I do actually plan to use some Apistan next
week on the hives into which I dump our bees from the honey house windows
since I need to see if any varroa has appeared locally, and will try this
in addition to the alcohol wash samples we do in the yards when checking
tracheal mites.
 
Having said that, what I understand from reading is that fluvalinate comes
in both water soluble and non water soluble forms.  The fluvalinate
in Apistan (R) is of the latter type and is thus not nearly as prone to
get into honey as it is into wax. In fact wax would likely tend to draw it
from honey on long exposure.
 
Additionally, fluvalinate is a pyrethroid.  Pyrethroids are not very toxic
to warm-blooded critters such as most humans, but quite deadly to
cold-blooded ones such as insects, lizards and fish.  It is a fluke that
fluvalinate was found to be one pyrethroid that had relatively minor
effects on honeybees while having the normal toxicity to other insects and
varroa mites.  (I wonder why it does not affect tracheal mites -- or does
it?)
 
Anyhow, with Apistan, very minute, measured doses are used for limited
periods of time in beehives.  Indeed in the process, some fluvalinate does
get dissolved in beeswax and apparently levels build over time.  However,
since the attraction to wax and oil based substances is much stronger than
to a water based substance such as honey, honey will not hold any
significant amount in the presence of wax.  It's a question of mixing oil
and water. Apistan use is much more a problem for wax buyers and sellers,
since beeswaxes are used in cosmetics and foods, and fluvalinate residues
are becoming ubiquitous in waxes from Apistan using countries.
 
On the other hand there are other types of fluvalinate that *are* water
soluble -- and I assume much less soluble in oil and wax -- that have
caused problems for beekeepers.  I believe Mavrik (R) contains one of
those water based types and is intended for spraying on field crops
(Please correct me if I'm wrong).
 
Homemade treatments using strips of plywood, etc. soaked in Mavrik have
been utilized by some who wished to avoid the rather high cost of Apistan
(R).  (Mavrik is very cheap).  This practice has resulted in a number of
problems and is also implicated in the development of fluvalinate
resistance in varroa.  Such water based types of fluvalinate are also much
much more likely to be found in honey, since they are soluble in honey
and not attracted to the wax.
 
At any rate, honey destined for the supers is often first placed in the
brood chamber by the bees, then moved up, so at honey flow time, you can
figure that anything in the brood chamber will potentially affect your
honey.
 
Is there a danger?  In terms of health, likely not.  In terms of PR,
perhaps.  Could we have another 'Alar' scare?  Again, perhaps, but I think
that the public is now much more wise than at the time of the Alar scare.
Very few people today believe that they can buy food without a molecule or
two of some form of pesticide or drug in it.  In recent years modern
science has shown that it can find the equivalent of a marble in a
gymnasium when it seeks 'foreign' molecules in foods.
 
At spraying time in this agricultural district, the amount of herbicide in
the air from evaporation was such that sensitive crops miles from spraying
were wilting a bit.  Since Chernobyl and Three Mile Island and now
Pickering, people have become inured to the knowledge that radiation gets
around.  Nonetheless general public health and longevity has never been
at higher levels in North America.
 
Honey processors are very careful about the products they buy and sell,
and are constantly checking  for fluvalinate residues among other things.
  I have not heard of any loads being rejected or even questioned for
fluvalinate.
 
Does that mean that honey is safe from a panic?  Nothing is, but I believe
that such events are somewhat random; we've had the somewhat vague and
inconclusive botulism thing around for years and for most people the
reaction is 'Ho hum'.
 
Allen