Jerry Scott wrote:
>
> Hi,
>         As seen with this question, I am very, very new to beekeeping.
> Just starting.  I know what mineral oil is, but what is FGMO?  Also,
> based on some of the comments here, it seems that FGMO is very effective
> against mites.  Maybe better than A. strips, which is all that I knew to
> fight them with.  How does one treat with FGMO?  If this has been talked
> about before I joined the like, would there be the answers in the BEE-L
> archives?
>
> Thanks
> Jerry Scott
> [log in to unmask]
 
Jerry
        Glad to hear your interest in mineral oil, FGMO = food grade mineral
oil which can be bought at any food store or drug store, used for
constipation. FGMO is a highly refined oil that comes from crude oil. I
had posted a message on sci.agriculture.beekeeping news group explaining
how I used mineral oil for treatment for mites in my own colonies. I
know some beekeepers don't believe this works but they can just wasting
$5.00 per colony spring and fall by treating with apistan.
 
I would like to thank Dr. Rodriguez for his experiments with mineral
oil, if he hadn't discoved the mineal oil treatment then all this post
that follows wouldn't be possible.
 
Vivian,
yes mineral oil will kill your bees if too much comes in contact with
them. I was applying mineral oil to the top bars of my colonies without
mixing, applied in long strips on all top bars. Problem with this
process is that it is very time consuming and my back was killing me.
Also after appling mineral oil to colonies in my back yard on one day I
then returned the next morning only to see a cluster of bees morning
over their Queen, what a sorry sight. Seems the Queen walked over the
top bars right after my application and got too much mineral oil on her.
I thought there must be a better way too apply mineral oil. If you try
to mix mineral oil with water it won't mix, mineral oil is not water
soluble even tried a blender. If you use enough sugar then it mixes by
shaking vigourously before spraying, I used 3 cups water 3 cups sugar
and 4 to 5 oz mineral oil. You can also put in about 6 drops of
wintergreen or spearmint oil if you have alot of mites, the bees prefer
not using the spearmint or wintergreen oil though.
 
  I sprayed my colonies in the morning before the bees fly they will
then eat the sugar water and oil right away. This is their first food
source of the day so I think it is more likely it will be feed to the
brood instead of storing into honey cells. Mineral oil in any amount
that comes in contact with the varroa mite will kill on contact. You
must spray once a week to keep ahead of the brood cycles of every 8
days. It may take about a month to see results but it will work, you
also have no mite build up in the fall.
 
I also experimented with what the bees will tolerate when beeing sprayed
directly on them and brood. I found if you can get the sprayer to spray
a fine mist the bees don't seem to mind being sprayed. If you mix
spearmint or wintergreen in the mix they get very annoyed, I even had a
virgin queen take into flight right of the comb see never returned. I
did use warm water when spraying directly on the combs and bees so not
to kill the brood.
 
The type of sprayer I used was one you can buy at any garden shop it
holds about 1 gallon and has a pump on the top, it will cost about
twenty dollars. The small 1 pint sprayers with trigger pump will work
but not as good. Which ever sprayer you use the trick is shaking before
spraying, mineral oil will separate in about 1 minute after shaking. You
will see the mixture turn cloudy when the oil gets mixed in. I had
apiaries of 6 colonies up to 20 miles apart, I could treat them and
check for the need for honey supers in about 10 minutes. This process is
simple enough even for the largest commercial operator.
 
I hope this helps
 
Elroy