In the UK, products licenced as veterinary medicines for bees are:

Apiguard (thymol gel)
Apistan (tau-fluvalinate strips)
Bayvarol (flumethrin strips)
Apilife Var (thymol, methnol, eucalyptus, camphor)
Thymovar (thymol)

Beekeepers in any EU country can legally obtain and use a product registered in another EU country via a 'Suitably Qualified Person', usually a vet. Through that route there is widespread use in the UK of Apivar (amitraz).  Some have access to the Italian formulation of oxalic acid (Api-Bioxal) and coumaphos (registered in some other EU countries.

That Italian product uses oxalic acid at about 6% (w/v, oxalic acid dihydrate) which is unlikely to be the optimum concentration for much of Europe.  There are studies that show significant mortality at that level and in the UK people usually use 4.5% or even lower (again w/v, oxalic acid dihydrate, some express this as w/v of the anhydrous equivalent which is lower).

There is very widespread use of home-made thymol and oxalic acid treatments.  These, and the official products, are very effective when used in the right way, particularly with regard to timing.  Thymol when it is warm enough, oxalic when there is no sealed brood.

G.

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