Hello Peter & All,
All I know about the salts I read in the earlier posts. The salts sounded
reasonable so I sent for information. I read the information and the testing
although done in France involved up to 3,000 hives. U.S.D.A. never uses so
many hives in their testing. Now I am trying to get additional information.
Has any Bee-L beekeeper ever used the salts? Also in the acknowledgements
the name Dr. Martha Gilliam (U.S.D.A.,Tucson,Arizona) is included for her
KIND ADVICE AND REVISION OF THIS MANUSCRIPT.  Come on researchers how about
stepping forward and either give your opinion or tell us what the U.S.D.A.
knows about varroa & salts.
The word as spelled in the text is hormetic. Quote from
 *Varroa jacobsoni control by feeding honey bees with organic cupric salts
Michel Bounias,jean-Francis Andre,Myriam Nectoux
Avigon & Clermont-Ferrand -France and D.S. Popeskovic Belgrade-Yugoslavia
quote:
It is interesting to note that the lower gluconate dose yielded the higher
increase in the number of brood combs. This represents a strengthening of
the corresponding colonies,which might correspond to the improvement effects
observed in the lifespan of the bees(Nectoux 1990),and therefore fall into
the category of HORMETIC effects. This contrasts with the toxicity of
pyrethroid compounds,such as esfenvalerate(What is this chemical ?) ,to the
honey bees(Mayer et al. 1990).
Taken together ,these data show that feeding with copper -containing syrups
provides a median and long-term inhibition of parasite developement with no
apparent damage to the bees and no toxic residues in honey,where the natural
levels of copper are not exceeded . Indeed culpric treatments are long-term
ones,and there effects cannot be compared to those of shock-treatments of
synthetic acaricides. However, the absence of toxic residues remaining in
honey represents a substantial advantage,since traces of of such pesticides
remaining in honey are now found(Hemmerling,Augustinyak and Risto1991
;Sancho et al.1991)
Have the U.S.D.A. allready looked at the salts ?
Sincerely,
Bob Harrison

> Quote: "Hormetic effects were also reported in the tests"
>
> What are "Hormetic effects"? Is this a misspelling?
>
> PB