Barry Birkey wrote:
>
> I was made aware recently, about a Florida beekeeping newsletter
> recommending not to use coumaphos and TM together as it was causing a bad
> reaction.
Please be more specific as to problem.
 If you look up coumaphos in the chemical book, Agricultural
> Chemicals, it has  precautions on mixing with fluvalinate and I quote: "Do
> not mix with other insecticides nor use in conjunction with oral drenches or
> other internal medicines. Toxic to birds and fish."
>
> The TM beekeepers use is an internal medicine and therefore in no way should
> be mixed with coumaphos and could easily explain the problems beekeepers are
> starting to have in Florida mixing the two.  Is this information printed on
> the label?  I don't know since I won't use coumaphos.
Please email me your solution to the varroa mite problem.
Rudolf Steiner's prediction 1923 that mankind would lose the honeybee in
eighty years time is looking ominously correct.
In the U.S. pollination is the number one value of the honeybee.
Pollination is the single factor keeping the commercial beekeepers
going. Honey production is a nuisance to many and with the wholesale
price of honey below production costs not worth the effort. The bank
manager will not loan money on the huge crop you say you are going to
harvest but he will loan money on signed pollination contracts.
Thousands of hives are crashing in U.S. because Apistan is not working
as it did for so many years. Each colony destroyed by varroa costs a
beekeeper at least $100 in lost pollination fees,honey and of course
replacement costs. Truck loads of coumaphos strips are in hives in U.S.
and are providing close to 100% varroa mite kill.
formic acid gell is still not available yet in Missouri and should have
been put in colonys a month ago. Most beekeepers believe the gell is not
going to get the mite kill we need if put on to late in the fall.
Menthol works great in Florida(tracial mites)but does not work well(in
the packets)in Missouri in the fall because it is to temperature
dependent. Formic acid gell is temperature dependent also. I will try
the gell along with testing to make sure its working this fall. The
above are the legal choices at presant in the U.S.
R.P. Harrison
P.S. I was at at Florida State beekeepers meeting in 1962 when the
prediction  by Rudolf Steiner was brought up. We all had a good laugh. I
am not laughing now!
> -Barry