On Tue, 22 Apr 1997, William A. Simmons wrote:
 
> Roy: An interesting test would have been just the use of the essential oils.
>  Perhaps it was the Apistan strips alone that killed the mites.  I used
> several delivery methods of essential oils throughout March and the beginning
> of April here in Tennessee, no Apistan was used.  While the clusters remained
> small, I detected a very low level of mites.  But as the hives powered up,
> 2-3 mites per drone brood cell began to show up.  Since I had two hives
> perish rapidly by mid-summer last year from Paracitic Mite Syndrome, I lost
> my nerve with the use of the oils and inserted some Apistan for a couple of
> weeks before the onset of the honey flow.  Also there has been a report that
> hives fed mint oil in sugar syrup were reluctant to accept caged queens.  Of
> the four that I tried to introduce caged queens, two rejected the new queen.
>  I have never had a caged queen rejected before.  I am all for an organic
> means to control mites, but the cure has to work year round (not just in the
> fall) and be conducive to total hive management (i.e. requeening)  Sincerely,
> Bill ([log in to unmask])
>
 Hi Bill,
  You have a strong point in have a working management system working year
around. What has been found so far, is that some mite controls do not work
the year around.Dr. Sammataro did work with grease pattys and it was
published in the ABJ within the last 6 months. The findings were not
cosistant through out the year. I feel that the variance in the
enviornment works for or against some organic controls. It would have to
because nature is in an ever changing mode. Mint is cut 3 times for oil
production. Every cutting is different, so the people that process the
mint need to adjust to the change that nature has made.
  The use of Apistan is different. It is not plugging up the pores the
mites breath through , like oil. Max at Sandoz could give us a little over
view of what apistan really affects on the mite. It must be toxic to the
mite.
 In regards to queens being rejected. I could see that happening if she is
out of balance with the smell of the hive. I always use Vanilla extract in
sugar suryp and give the bees a spray and the queen cage. So far no
problems. By the way , all queens are not equal. Some carry more queen
sent with them than others. That is a complete new story all by it
self.There are many views to the queen problem. Its like a soup sandwhich
and very complex. Some feel that the viruses have a play in the problem
also. Some feel that the gene pool is getting too small for the breeders
to do the best job that they can in breeding. I was in the gene group ,
but now I think it is a little of both.I would like to see some work to
find out the truth.Dr. Richard Fineman gave a lecture,  that he stated
that science starts with an idea or guess and he was heavy on the guess
part. Then it is proven by expieriment.Richard Fineman has been concidered
to be second to Einstein in theorectical physics. We need more controlled
expieriments on the affects of oils in the hive.This can get deep  , do to
the turpins in the wood. Jerry Bromenshank at the U of Montana has THE
breakthru in expeiriments with hives. His electronic hives will give us
data that we could not collect before. He gave us a quantum leap foreword.
By applying different compounds in the hive , we can monitor what changes
the bees have in there behavior. Number of flights and the chemistry of
the
hive.
 We do have people all around the world working on different parts of bee
behavior and responce to chemicals.Every one of them is a part of are over
all improoving understanding of Honey Bees. I would like to thank all of
them for there work. Each one has a piece of the soulution. The more
pieces we have the better the picture. In my talk lat week to a Kiwanis
Club , I told them that the more I learned about the Honey Bee , the
smaller I seemed to get in relationship to the bee. One thing for shure,
we will never have all the answers , but we should learn as much as we
can.
 
 Best Regards
  Roy