Nathaniel:
I was just in Blooming to give a talk to the Heart of Illinois Beekeepers.
Sorry you were not there, or you question would be answered already.
Tracheal mites are STILL HERE, in every county in the U. S. Because they are
totally
invisible without a microscope, they rarely are detected by most beekeepers
for two reasons: He does NOT have a microscope, and he does not know how to
dissect a worker bee to microscope the trachea. A lot of colonies die in
January, and a tremendous number of beeHAVERS tell the world "it was a bad
winter, and it killed my bees". If the true is known, the winter did not
kill the bees, the tracheal mite
did and as usual in January, possibly December or February. I will bet you
that your bees have tracheal mites right now, but it generally takes about 2
or even 3 years before the mites kill the colony. Right now, in July, check
the bees sitting or walking around on the grass, if you find one that can't
seem to fly, get alarmed because that bee can't breathe and is about to die
of tracheal mite infestation.
THIS IS NOT A POSITIVE DIAGNOSTIC TEST, but it gives you an idea of a
direction to get started testing.
Scientists of the federal government and many state governments have been
extremely eager to find a treatment for both the tracheal mite as well as the
Varroa mite for years, and have tested about anything that someone suggested.
However, the ONLY POSITIVE treatment for tracheal mites, and it DOES KILL 99%
of all the mites WHEN IT IS USED AT THE CORRECT TIME, is MENTHOL! However,
menthol is extremely temperature dependent and if not used at the correct
time of year, it is useless and does not kill the mites. Western Illinois is
about the same latitude as Washington, DC (near my home), and we install
menthol on August 15th.
In Maryland, if you wait to install menthol into September, forget it, it is
too late.
Just put 50 grams of menthol on the frame tops of the lowest brood chamber
and forget it until you remove the empty bag next spring.
Dr. Diana Sammataro has spent the last 10 years using PLAIN grease
patties to CONTROL (they will not KILL) tracheal mites. The same as a
diabetic can stay alive and function for umpteen years as long as they take a
shot of insulin every day, but insulin does not KILL the diabetes pathogen,
just controls it. The honey bee scientist will NOT recommend the use of
grease patties because they do NOT kill the mites, but they will suggest that
we use grease patties all 12 months of the year, even during nectar gathering
time, but the replacement of this Crisco and sugar is labor intensive doing
it continuously for 12 months.
Dr. Nick Carderone, when at Beltsville worked on ESSENTIAL OILS for 10
years, and gave up saying they were NOT RELIABLE.
The guy pushing hard on FOOD GRADE MINERAL OIL is a Norfolk Dentist,
which is a long way from being a scientist. Shimanuki at Beltsville laughs
when FGMO is
mentioned favorably, because Beltsville tests were meaningless.. Maybe
tomorrow
someone will say they had success mixing violets in cow manure and putting
this on the bottom board. There are some real nuts out there.
I would like to continue talking to you about mites, but I leave in the
morning for 10 days of teaching advanced beekeeping at the 1999 EAS meeting
in Tennessee.
My advice to you is SIMPLE. Remove all your supers by August 15th, and
the put 50 grams of menthol on the frame top bars of the lowest brood
chamber, and your tracheal mites will be killed for 1999.
You can find many of my writings on:
http://www.cybertours.com/~midnitebee/ click the lower right image
or, you can find some of my newest writings, including the long Illinois talk
on:
http://www.beekeeper.org/george_imirie/index.html
Good luck, and let me hear from you sometime.
George Imirie
EAS Certified Master Beekeeper
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