Tom related the experience of a friend with "Ipereat":

> I used it at the above specifications in late October...
> That previous spring these same hives were checked
> using bavoral strips for 48 and 72 hours and the maximum
> mite fall was just 2!!  in just 3 of the 11.
> In October this product showed varroa in all hives.

Nothing against this product, as I agree that any proposed
method or technique deserves a fair hearing, but the
evaluation methods as described lack a basis for
comparison.

The higher number of dropping mites and larger number of
hives with a significant mite drop in fall may well be due to
nothing more than the normal population growth of varroa
over summer.

One can expect varroa population to increase at a very high
rate in the summer months.  If one monitors "natural" mite drop
on a regular basis, one finds that spring mite drops are insignificant,
while summer and fall drops are much much higher.  One finds
that treatment is best applied during June and July to "knock back"
high mite populations to a subcritical level before they overwhelm
the colony in Aug or Sept.

Since summer is when crops of honey are being made, one of
the few treatments that can be used on an ad-hoc, as-needed
basis without concern for crop contamination is powdered-sugar
dusting.

So, without some form of intervention during the summer, one
must expect a much higher mite population, and hence mite
drop in October, even if one were to repeat the same test
(for example, using bavoral) with the same methods used in
the spring.

> In some hives at the beginning daily numbers of 6 and 7
> hundred were to be found culminating in an overall average
> of 2500 and a maximum of 4020.There was also one or two
> with just  a few hundred.

The numbers are impressive.  The numbers are high enough
to make one wonder how the colony survived as long as October.
Sadly, without a frame of reference in the form of at least a
head-to-head comparison with some other method of known
potency, the numbers are impossible to evaluate.

It is a shame that a few hives were not treated with bavoral at
the same time as the Ipereat treatment on the other hives.
This would have given a basis for comparison, and allowed
one to gain a feel for the relative merits of the product.

> I was also finding transparent mites which am told are to found
> only in the cells, this is an interesting indication of the strength
> of this product.

I have a hard time agreeing that this could have been the
result of killing varroa "in the cell".  Long before being able
to penetrate the brood-cap wax into the sealed cell, the
vapor pressure of the fumes alone, regardless of the
composition of the substance would be high enough to drive
the bees from the hive, or even kill the bees from asphyxiation.
Anything volatile and powerful enough to penetrate into a sealed
cell would also be cause for serious concern about impact on
wax and honey, if not brood.

In my view, spring treatments for varroa are useless.  Think
about it - assume you have a single-digit mite fall using
whatever test method you wish.  Since you have no chance
at all of killing all the mites in spring, you are exchanging one
small number of mites for another small number of mites, and
in the process, exposing bees, wax, and mites to a pesticide
during a period that may be too cool to allow the pesticide to
be fully effective.

No matter what "small number" you start with in spring, you
are sure to see the number grow rapidly as brood area
increases in warmer weather.  No matter which "model" one
uses, the starting number of mites makes no difference -
the important parameter is the mite reproductive process itself.

        jim

        farmageddon (where we got our first snow yesterday)