Trevor Weatherhead wrote:
>
> I had a visit from a German lady beekeper last year who had carried out some
> work at University on using temeperature for mite control before becoming a
> commercial beekeeper.
>
> As I recall, they took sealed frames of brood out and heated them to
> temperatures in the mid 40 degrees celcius.  The sealed brood could stand it
> but the varroa were killed by the temperature.
>
> Apparently it was not considered suitable for commercial use as there was only
> a few degrees difference between the temperature needed to kill the varroa and
> the temperature at which the sealed brood was killed.
>
> If some our beekeeping friends in Germany are on line, they may be able to
> provide more accurate details.
>
> Trevor Weatherhead
> AUSTRALIA
 
This idea of heating the hives appeals to me.  I first read about it in l993 in an article by Dr. W. Ritter in
which he said that heat treatment of 45 deg. C coupled with 5 mls of wintergreen oil killed about 60% to 80%
of the mites.  He did not say how long he maintained the temperature or the method he used to heat the hive.
I like the fact that this kills mites in the cells.  The method is not very practical if you have a lot of
hives but could be used to good effect if you just have a couple of hives in the garden. The only worry is
what happens to the 20% of mites that survive - are they going to breed a super mite tolerant to the heat
treatment?
 
Harry
Scotland