Regarding the shelf life of Apistan, many beekeepers have
reused the strips after they have hung in the hive and have found
them still working. I want to emphasize that I DO NOT RECOMMEND this,
but state it only to underscore the concept that one year old strips
stored wrapped up in the dark are very unlikely to be stale. The
fluvalinate is not particularly volatile; otherwise it would
evaporate rapidly in the warm hive and would not remain active for
the six weeks that is needed to destroy the mites in a colony.
        On the other hand, since the correspondent was writing from
California and had captured swarms as a means of obtaining bees, I
felt the warning about resistant mites was justified. California, due
to its large concentration of migratory beekeepers, as well as
amateurs, has always had more than its share of bee disease. I lived
in San Diego for decades and saw many abandoned apiaries rife with
AFB. Many commercial beekeepers told me that they simply kept
Terramycin in the hives year-round. I don't doubt that many of them
do the same with Apistan, despite the admonitions.
        Finally, we must not ever get into the habit of thinking any
one treatment is going to always work. Try as many different ones as
possible. In the recent "Gleanings," Prof. Calderone notes that
colonies that are split in the spring tend to wind up with lower
concentrations of mites. It may be worthwhile to develop a management
technique that employs larger numbers of medium strength colonies
rather than fewer very strong ones, even if one is raising bees for
honey. If one is pollinating for a fee, this is probably the approach
one is already using.
Peter Borst

[log in to unmask]

http://www.people.cornell.edu/pages/plb6/