> At our association apiary meeting today 
> the opinion was expressed that varroa 
> treatment using thymol attracts wasps 
> to the hives.  This is a new one for me!

I am not surprised.

1)  Thymol, even when properly used, can kill substantial brood.
2)  Dead brood is left near the entrance on the landing board in the
pre-dawn hours.
3)  Wasps are both carnivores and early risers in fall. 
4)  Once finding fresh meat, the wasps will return again and again.

The effect seems mysterious only because the beekeeper does not walk along
his hive entrances at dawn, a practice that I have found to be among the
best screening diagnostics, as the things on the landing boards tell
interesting tales about each hive.   

This "walk and chalk", allows one to mark hives based solely upon seeing
"something different", so it does not require extensive beekeeping
experience or skill, provides exercise for the beekeeper and his/her dog,
and really does expose the hives with issues in need of further examination
quicker and more accurately than any other approach I've seen.  Once or
twice, it exposed pesticide use while my bees were on apples, a clear breach
of the pollination agreement.




 

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