,
Peter wrote:
> I am sorry if I have stirred something up here. I think that it is
> worth the effort to uncover the truth, no matter how unsavory.

I enjoy your posts. Stirring things up makes for excellent discussion as
long as we all respect each others view points. This post is about the use
and history of strips. Enough have been said already about why certain
beekeepers  would rather not use chemicals.

 Peter wrote;
The  truth is, honey has pesticides in it, even if you are not using them,
> because of the sad state of our environment. The good news is that
> the amount is minuscule, only of major concern to people who
> entertain the notion of absolute purity (which doesn't exist).

Peter is correct. The above has been pointed out many times by Jerry B.
from *his* own research.

When a person does beekeeping for a living you can not take many chances.
You need to go with what works. One wrong choice can cost big bucks and also
put you out of business.

Looking back the results and  problems brought on by the use of both apistan
and checkmite were  exactly as both manufacturers said they would be as far
as control and contamination.

We did see a certain amount of drone sterilization with apistan and  some
queen rearing problems with checkmite which were not anticipated.
.
The bees which were found  resistant to choumaphos in the northeast were
traced back to a illegal use of a liquid dip. One ignorant beekeeper causing
problems  for all of us.

Both the manufacturers of Apistan (zoe-con) and checkmite (Bayer) had warned
at national meetings that we would loose  both if misuse was involved.

Looking back U.S. beekeepers were in a lose lose situation because we never
were given two chemicals to alternate with.

 The U.S. varroa problem was handled exactly like the problem was handled in
Europe.
*Use one chemical till varroa become resistant , then switch to another
chemical till the varroa become resistant *

The USDA did come up with Russian queens and SMR so they have done the best
they could.

Getting chemicals registered for use in beekeeping  can be traced back to
the needs of large beekeepers. Without the large beekeepers needing Apistan
or checkmite neither would ever have been registered.

I have tried to explain about the use of strips in the U.S. . Arms were
never twisted to use strips. Like it or not those not using strips but
*organic* controls are less than 1 % of the U.S. beekeeping industry in my
opinion from talking to others in the industry and researchers.

I never met a beekeeper which liked the idea of putting a chemical in a
beehive. I never met a orchard grower which enjoyed spraying dangerous
chemicals on his orchard.

The person spraying is in a hundred times  the  danger from contamination
than the consumer   eating a  grocery store apple.

You simply can not grow a couple hundred acres of apples without spray and
stay in business . The number  of orchards has  dropped from 17 apple
orchards to five in our area. With apples selling below the cost of
production, cost of chemicals and the dangers of chemical spraying the other
12 have quit the orchard business. Agriculture is a tough place to make a
living.

I have never seen anything in print or heard talked about the danger of
inhaling coumaphos powder  from checkmite strips. The powder is airborne at
times when pulling the stuck together strips apart. At least a dust mask
should be worn.


Bob