> We have used only thymol as a varroa treatment since it was found here in
> 1997.  Absolutely no evidence of early queen failure.  We have plenty of
> queens that live 3-4 years.
>

I use Thymol but only for nosema and only in one quart of treated sugar
syrup per hive in the spring and fall.

It does not do anything to control my Varroa issues. Many years ago, I ran
an experiment with it and some "resistant" bees and they barely made it
through the winter and eventually died, so I place little store with it for
a Varroa treatment. (Way back when there was a Turk study that showed
excellent results using Thymol to treat for Varroa and I followed that
protocol. All beekeeping is local and Maine is not Turkey, even though, if
you have ever met Turk military, my bet is there Varroa are tougher than
ours so it should have worked.)

It also can lead to issue in the hive with queen pheromone  being masked
and possible queen loss- this from someone who is a lot more knowledgeable
than me.So I treat it with caution. To the point that this year, even
before this post, I decided to no longer treat in the fall for the sake of
the queen. I figure the spring thymol will be gone quickly, but the fall
thymol might end up in stores all winter long.

Bill Truesdell
Bath, Maine

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