>Subject: Re: Formic acid gel
>>Article from USDA:    Anybody have any comments on this?
 
Hi fellow bee keepers and friends,
Why sure I gots a few comments to share with you, sure glad I was asked.<G>
 
>>Formic Acid Gel Protects Bees and People
 
The Good, the Bad, or Ugly?
 
Its good to have another chemical tool to help fight bee pests.
Its good that all beekeepers may be able to use this tool.
Its good that we may have this tool sooner then later.
 
------------------ I could end it here and save a lot of band width but I
won't-----------------
 
>>Beekeepers could soon have an alternative way to save their hives from
varroa
>>mites, pests that are becoming resistant to the standard control,
fluvalinate,
>>sold as Apistan. A new treatment--a gel containing formic acid--has been
>>licensed to industry by the USDA's Agricultural Research Service.
 
Its very bad that the USDA is handling the promotion of this product.
 
I am sure there is no conflict of interest or is there? These are the same
people who are promoting their own selection of breeder Queen Bees also for
sale under license. Is it also ugly that they are the same people who are
responsible for introducing the African Bees into the US in another license
scheme to increase the pollination efficiency of our bees and then in a
reversal have hyped the same bees as being "killer" Africanized bees, or
are they now just Egyptian bees that were here all the time? Its the sperm
and if its on the dress then someone put it there. African bee sperm was
imported and used by the USDA at more then one location in a failed attempt
to develop better pollinating bees. I can tell you from hands on experience
that some of the daughters produced bee hives that could NOT be managed by
man, at least not this bee man, and not a thing was done to keep the genes
from being incorporated into the bee breeders gene pool. Heck they were a
good color anyway.
 
>>Apistan-resistant mites have been found in parts of the United States. ARS
>>scientists at the Bee Research Laboratory in Beltsville, Md., developed the
>>formic acid gel and have applied for a patent. In field tests, the formic
acid
>>gel killed up to 84 percent of varroa mites and 100 percent of tracheal
mites,
>>another bee pest.
 
Is it ugly or is it just convenient that the same people who are wanting
you to buy their licensed product also are the one's who see resistant
mites in every bee hive? We have been provided little understanding  on how
and when to treat to get maximum kill of vampire bee mites or what level of
infestation treatment should start.
 
The ugly tracheal mites are a easy excuse for poor beekeeping in areas that
have heavy winter die offs, before tracheal mites it was bad weather, poor
food, or something else. Using chemicals for this pest is not a good use of
capital and will not make any difference if you are lucky enough to get a
bad winter, or have poor fall flows or buy cheep sugar adulterated with who
knows what.
 
How ugly and how long until a product with only an 84% effective kill rate
under the best conditions will produce resistant mites? Will it be too bad
if the remaining 16% mites cause hives to die from PMS? Or are they now
calling it MLC, (mid-life crisis)?
 
>>ARS issued a license Monday to Betterbee, Inc., of Greenwich, N.Y. The
company
>>must obtain approval from the Environmental Protection Agency once they
>>develop a product. The formic acid gel could be available to beekeepers next
>>spring.
 
Betterbee Inc,, who own's them, it would be bad and ugly to find out they
had a few partners working for the USDA? Don't they make some soy flower
and sugar food product for bees that is sold at exorbitant premiums over
the value of the ingredients? Was this not also developed by the USDA or
not? How many commercial beekeepers use their products and what do they
think of them?
 
>>The gel formulation can ease the path to EPA registration because it reduces
>>the risk of exposure to formic acid compared with the formic acid spray used
>>in Europe. The spray is effective, but the highly toxic acid evaporates
>>quickly. This puts bees and beekeepers at risk if spraying is done
>>incorrectly. Also, spraying must be repeated, unlike the gel.
 
Yes for sure the bad, ugly, dumb, stupid, illiterate commercial beekeepers
should not be allowed to use formic acid because like using a smoker it may
get away from him and burn his bees, home, dog, kids, the state and may
ever be the cause of the la Nina. Because he is so dumb he should pay an
inflated price for everything he buys makes no never mind he may also be a
licensed pest control applicator and bee trusted with using the same farm
chemicals we just bombed Khartoum for only having the precursors.
 
>>the bag and leave it in the hive. After the acid evaporates, it leaves a
>>harmless residue that won't contaminate the hive or the honey.
 
Right and if you believe this let me sell you some bees that need not human
intervention other then harvesting the honey.
 
>>Varroa mites cause economic losses not only to beekeepers but also to
farmers
>>who depend on honey bees to pollinate $10 billion worth of U.S. crops. In
>>California, for example, half a million bee colonies are needed each year to
>>pollinate the almond crop.
 
You bet and from the bee science regulatory experts on almond pollination
in the USDA who's only contact with almond pollination is the 2000 mile
junket to get away from their winter home to visit California and their own
library research. And only a half million hives to pollinate 425,000 acres,
its no wonder the yield is less this year then last, it was for sure a lack
of bees on a crop that requires two or more hives to set a commercial crop
or maybe they don't require any. Wonder how the rest of the world that has
over 1,000,000 acres of almonds does it with no honey bees or are we to
believe that they have healthy robust feral populations that do the job?
Ask the USDA almond pollination experts if you want a surprise.
 
>>Scientific contact: Hachiro Shimanuki, ARS Bee Research Laboratory,
>>Beltsville, Md., phone (301) 504-8975, fax (301) 504-8736,
>>[log in to unmask]
 
Oh my gosh is this not the same USDA BS that applied the final solution to
bees with T mites just a few years back and killed thousands of hives and
destroyed the lives of many beekeepers big and small? I think they did
develop some new final solutions for bee problems then, a better livings
for beekeeper through chemistry and pesticides or is it a slow death?
 
The question is why is it that when the USDA promotes a hobby beekeeper
solution to beekeeping problems like this they always are fast to quote
commercial beekeeping stats like the value of pollination when not one
commercial beekeeper, at least here in California, if not the home of
pollination the place that sure has a lot of it on going since the late
40's, can name a USDA Pollination Scientist or has ever seen one? Hell we
lose more bees to farm use pesticides, also regulated and approved by the
USDA each year, then all the mite damage since day one and you don't see
any intervention from the BS group to change this and in fact you must know
that in all these years not one hive of USDA bees has ever been publicly
acknowledge in any press release or paper as being damage or killed by
normal farm pesticide use, its always our hives. Its about time they share
their secrets with us as this damage alone or lack of it is worth the total
value of the bee industry which has had to replace itself many, many, times
because of pesticides.
 
ttul, the OLd Drone
http://beenet.com
 
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