Thanks for the clarification, Medhat--the amount of brood present has a
profound effect upon overall efficacy.


> >The shared paper mentioned few modes of action on how OA kills mites.
>

Actually, the authors state only that "OA appears to combat varroa in two
ways. It damages varroa mouthparts and also causes increased bee to bee
contact and grooming."

The authors cite a few papers in support of the above statement, which
surprised me, since I hadn't noticed support for either claim when I read
the original papers when they came out.  So I reread the papers this
morning (and also searched for the words "damage" and "mouthparts"--none of
them mentioned damaged mouthparts or increased contact.

As noticed by Aliano and Ellis in one of the cited papers: "The mode of
action for OA is not completely understood."

And now, some 11 years after that statement, as far as I've seen, the mode
of action is not in any way understood, and any claims as to its mode of
action appear to be merely speculative.

-- 
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

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