Hello Ian!    FWIW,  read comments below.
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Date:    Mon, 18 May 1998 20:28:23 -0400
From:    Ian Watson <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Foulbrood and saving bees
 
>>You can clean the hives by washing them with a sodium hydroxide solution
 
>Has anyone tried using Hydrogen Peroxide to wash combs with Foulbrood?
After my first winter in beekeeping,
all three of my hives died of an unknown disease.  They had a white-ish
mould growing on some of them, particularly
where there was pollen.>
 
When a colony dies *without* disease the pollen/honey mix will very often
grow  this white fungus you describe, which almost never indicates that
disease was present.  Was there evidence that this death was due to
foulbrood?  My assessment says the new bees simple cleaned up this comb,
and the hydrogen peroxide had nothing to do with it.As marketed, this
material is a 3 percent solution, and is a weak bleach.  Water has a
chemical formula of H2O, is very stable;  H2O2 is the formula for hydrogen
peroxide, and the extra oxygen molecule is very unstable, meaning it
breaks off easily and oxidizes things such a hair, feathers, etc that
would be injured by other than very mild bleaches.
 
The bacillus larvae, causing foulbrood,  is not an anaerobic organism,
meaning that it does not require an envirement without or with very little
oxygen to grow, to reproduce,  and to thrive;  were this the case,
hydrogen  peroxide might force it into its spore form, but a 3 per cent
solution would not be able to kill the bacteria is significant numbers to
make a difference.  In this strngth, the small amount of O2 released on
its application would be consumed in an instant by the large amount of
organic matter in the brood nest comb.
 
  >A friend of mine suggested washingthem with a diluted Hydrogen Peroxide
solution, and I did, and put new bees in them and they seemed to be fine.
Since peroxide is used as an antiseptic on cuts, etc, I would assume it
kills bacteria, which is what Foulbrood is.  No?  And if it doeswork, it
should be safer than sodium hydroxide, which I think isthe same as bleach
or similar.  Just a thought.  Comments?>
 
I am a retired physician who has practiced 35 years, but not in the past
15.  I am NOT offering any medical advice whatsoever here!
 
Incidently,  terramycin does not effectively kill bacillus larvae either,
but does create such an unfavorable envirement that the vegetative,
infectious status of active foulbrood is forced back into the
non-infectious spore form.
Bob Barnett, Birmingham
 
>Ian Watson    [log in to unmask]
>real estate agent     gardener    baritone
>beekeeper---> 13 colonies