I must admit that before Aaron's post mentioning it, I had never heard
of DICOFOL

DICOFOL FUMIGATION OF HONEY BEES FOR THE CONTROL OF THE MITE VARROA JACOBSONI

> Fumigation paper wicks each containing 0.5 g of active substance were made with dicofol and a small amount of KNO3, Using the fumigator, bees infested by Varroa mites -- at least 10 per test cage, 3 cages -- were treated with dicofol smoke. Fumigation with 5 mg dicofol/dm3 yielded a LD50 for Varroa mites in about 9 minutes. With 10 mg dicofol/dm3 all treatments resulted in a 100 per cent destruction of the Varroa parasites in 4 minutes. Using this dose, fumigation times of 2, 4, 8, 16 and 32 minutes appeared to be harmless to the bees. Control treatments with KNO3 caused no mortality of Varroa mites and bees. High smoke concentrations resulted in a typical and immediate reaction of the parasites : they left the bees, so that they were more intensively subjected to the smoke.  --  Apidologie 14 3 (1983) 175-182


* * *

Dicofol is an organochlorine miticide used on a wide variety of fruit,
vegetable, ornamental and field crops. It is produced as emulsifiable
concentrate and wettable powder formulations (4). Dicofol has little
effect on insects.

Dicofol is manufactured from DDT. In 1986, use of dicofol was
temporarily canceled by the EPA because of concerns raised by high
levels of DDT contamination (9). Modern manufacturing processes can
produce technical grade dicofol which contains less than 0.1 % DDT.
Dicofol causes hyperstimulation of nerve transmissions along nerve
axons. This hyperstimulation is thought to be related to inhibition of
ATPases in the central nervous system (3).

http://extoxnet.orst.edu/pips/dicofol.htm

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