Bob  said:

The article does not make clear  if they were testing those New Jersey
hives
which had coumaphos resistant varroa and had been treated illegally
(miticide dip) or random testing of hives which had been treated with
checkmite strips as per label.



I was at Rutgers University. The beekeeper who reported queen failure
problem, used checkmite strips for four years. He used the strips as
instructed in the label. When I worked on his bees, I found the regular
CheckMite strips, NOT the OTHER GENERIC Strips. By the way, after the four
years of using CheckMite, Varroa mites in his operation developed
resistance to Coumaphos. The efficacy of CheckMite was 19%. We tested
Apistan in his operation, we got 75% Varroa kill. Therefore, he had to
stop using the checkMite strips and started using Apistan in 2002. When he
stopped using CheckMite, he did not report unusual queen failure as in
previous years.


Bob said,
Jim makes some excellent points as what could happen to foundation wax and
brood nests if the contamination continues.

High levels of Coumaphos in the brood chamber have caused some visual
change in bee behaviour towards the queen. More research needs to be done
to look at cause and effect.

I am not aware of any studies reported a figure for the accumulated rate
for coumaphos per year. There is more to the story about Wax  vs plastic
foundations!!!


Medhat


Medhat Nasr, Ph. D.
Provincial Apiculturist
Pest Risk Management Unit
Crop Diversification Centre North

RR 6, 17507 Fort Road
Edmonton, AB, Canada T5B 4K3
Tel: (780) 415-2314    Fax: (780) 422-6096
Mailto:[log in to unmask]




Jim makes some excellent points as what could happen to foundation wax and
brood nests if the contamination continues.

Nasr in the article gives the accumulated rate for fluvalinate as 0.5
PPM/year.

I wonder if we have got a figure yet for the accumulated rate for
coumaphos
per year.

Comments?

Bob

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