There is certainly a lot of talk about formic acid against varroa mites.
In Holland, as probably in many other countries the use of formic acid
is officially not yet allowed, but still we want to give it a try.
On a fair we found little containers that could be mounted inside a low
frame and hung between other frames in the brood area. They will hold
some 150 ml of fluid and are manufactured in Berlin.
The principle is that of a bottle filled with water and put upside down
in in a saucer to water the birds in your garden. In the cup you stick
some kind of paper wick, so the fluid will evaporate slowly over a
couple of weeks.
Interesting, but where do you buy formic acid? Thirty years ago it could
easily be bought in any drugstore for just about peanuts (as the dutch
say for a fart and three marbles), but today it seems like it has
disappeared from the face of the earth. Nobody wants to order it for you
and nobody even knows where from. We went to the farmacy here and also
in Belgium and it turned out they could order it, but the price would be
about $100 for a gallon!
Then all of a sudden an agricultural advisor turned up and got me ten
gallons for about $75. That's better!
The datasheet that comes with the formic acid applicator references an
paper by a German entomologist on the results.
Anybody tried it and can tell us if FA is any good? It is a nasty
skin etching stuff that ants use for chemical warfare, but it still
seems a lot more natural than Apistan to me.
 
73's
 
Richard
--
Richard C. van Ouwerkerk, arts     email [log in to unmask]
anesthesioloog                                    PE1KFM
Geerdinkhof 529           telephone & fax +31 20 6953246
1103 RH AMSTERDAM ZUIDOOST
The Netherlands
"Das ist wirklich groszartig, Herr Kollege, was sie da
geleistet haben"                                Einstein