Peter wrote
>
> The reason for using the four treatments of 8g at weekly intervals is to
> allow a complete brood cycle to emerge and therefore kill the mites that
> emerge from the cells.  One treatment of 10g may kill phoretic mites, but
> this is of limited use if there are large numbers of mites in the brood
> cells.  By treating through august, after the crop has been removed, I can
> be sure that there is no risk of contaminating the crop and the colony will
> be virtually free of mites throughout the rest of the autumn and winter;
> this will enable it to rear a strong population of healthy young bees for
> overwintering. Until I find something
> better, I intend to continue to use thymol exclusively.

There is a great danger in using only one treatment of thymol - or anything. In areas where there is beehives of many beekeepers ( or feral) within flying distance, bees quite often collect mites after the early fall treatment while robbing the colonies that are dying to mites. Oxalic in late fall takes out these unwanted latecomers, which easily kill the hive early next year.

Ari Seppälä

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