Zachary gave a wonderful talk about this method at last springs Michigan Beekeepers Association meeting..  In the slides he showed, he ran wires horizontally in the foundation so that it is centered at the back of each cell.  There is a critical window of temperature at which the varroa are killed, but the brood is not harmed (Like having a fever that wipes out an infection.)  There is a second window of temperature whre the varroa and brood were both killed, but the comb was not damaged.  I don't recall the temperatures he cited, but it all looked possible in theory.

At the time of this talk, one of the obstacles to be overcome was applying just enough current to reach the desired window, (Either killing just the varroa, or killing varroa and Drone brood.)  without ending up too far over, and damaging brood or melting comb, or under, and not killing the varroa.  He talked about calculating resistance and stuff, but my knowledge of electrical properties is too skimpy for me to know how great a problem this actually is.

It does look very promising!   If the cost can be kept down, and the wires incorporated into a plastic foundation or all in one frame/ foundation, this could be a very useful tool!   Between SMR bees, Hygenic bees, and this, I think we may be able to keep bees without miticides again before too long.

(At Least I hope so!)

Ellen in Michigan

  Logan VanLeigh <[log in to unmask]> wrote: Zachary Huang wrote:
>
> News Release
> {SNIP}
The electrical resistant elements in the comb heat and kill both
> the mites and the drone pupae. It is even possible to regulate the
> temperature to kill mites only and not to harm the drone larvae, if drone
> production is desired.

My concern is that the added heat would damage nearby brood. If the
claim of killing mites without damaging drone larvae is true, that
solves that problem.

Logan