Hello All,
One last pondering. The similarities between Acetic acid and formic acid. We
know beyound a shadow of a doubt that formic acid is very effective against
varroa AND tracheal mite.
The chemical formula for vinegar is CH3-COOH very similar to formic acid
which is HCOOH. Do we know the way formic acid kills varroa and tracheal
mites? I stopped at this point in the post and reread the complete writings
on formic acid from the new book *Mites of the Honey Bee* (Webster &
Delaplane 2001)and there is no explanation of exactly what process kills the
mites. Could it be formic acid disolves the *Chitin* of the varroa mite?
Why is formic acid so effective against both mites when other chemicals work
mainly against one or the other?  What method does the Formic acid employee
to kill the tracheal mite?
I looked up a quote to back up my theory on why Dr.R was successful in
keeping his hives alive for four years and those only using the FGMO had
poor results:
pg 190 of *Mites of the Honey Bee*
"Tobacco smoke increases mite fall and has been used for both detection and
CONTROL" . Fogging every two weeks with the tobacco smoke throughout the
year would drop varroa numbers possibly more than the FGMO.
Sincerely,
Bob Harrison
Odessa, Missouri