Hi Guys,

My first move away from the strips involved using FGMO in its first
iteration. I dribbled it on the top bars and eventually ended up using an
FGMO impregnated blue shop towel. At the time, my mindset was quite
different than it is now. I was looking for a magic bullet that would kill
all mites...end of problem. Changing from that mindset to an IPM approach is
a big change. I don't think most beekeepers are there yet. It takes lots of
work and I sometimes wondered whether my beekeeping had swithched to
mitekeeping :>)

My experience with FGMO was a positive step. I found that varroa levels
wouldn't increase with it's continued use. A hive with a certain varroa mite
load could be maintained there. But if a treatment was missed, etc. mite
levels would rapidly increase. For a hive with a low level of infestation,
PMS  would be a long way off, but for a hive with high levels, PMS and
colony loss could occur in months. The 60s% effectiveness, that the earlier
study showed for FGMO, was about what I found in practice.

The biggest change in focus, from a strip approach to IPM, requires knowing
the mites, their cycles and certainly one's hives infestation levels. I
suspect that some beekeepers are trying to manage bees using FGMO with a
strip mentality.

The only fault I can find with the latest test is its short duration. Six
weeks or two brood cycles can be very deceptive with a soft approach.  And
just where those weeks occur in the season can greatly impact the percentage
of phoretic mites available and effected by FGMO.

As a commercial beekeeper, at that time, FGMO didn't meet my needs. It was
too labor intensive. Was too soft. And, although FGMO may be underneath the
radar as a food contaminant, I find it hard to believe that putting that
much petroleum product in the hive doesn't contaiminate hive products. It's
a far cry from organophosphates, but most petroleum products have some
health risks associated with them. It might not remain under the radar forever.

Some Thoughts
Dennis

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