Re: miticides.

Lest anyone misunderstand, I posted this 1) because it interests me and 2) it shows that so-called natural treatments (eg., essential oils, organic acids, etc.) can be just as hard on bees as the more refined miticides such as coumaphos. In fact, the better a substance targets the pest, the less it is likely to harm the host. Thymol and formic acid are all purpose antiseptics. 

Furthermore, it is quite plain that varroa and related viruses are still responsible for most of the honeybee mortality in the non-tropical beekeeping world. Logically, if we could rid the hives of this, work would be a lot simpler and cleaner. I am all for varroa killing bees, and various non-chemical control measures (killing drone brood, etc.)

I was actually sorry to see thymol and formic implicated since these are the only treatments I use. However, I never fooled myself into thinking they were benign or "natural" in any way. I just try to keep up with what is working


PLB

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