At 11:24 03-09-18, you wrote:
>Normand Choinière wrote:
>Could you provide some
>information on the strips?

Certainly not. I can't do better. There is nothing available according to
me. We are completely blind on this. We don't know anything about the
strips and what is in it. One thing for sure they are selling them and
can't supply on the demand!

I think that we surely should question FGMO but should we be doing that up
to that point? Those people don't even make a penny out of it and do
nothing less than their best!!!  Sure we should never accept wishy washy
things but I would surely think that the best to do  would be to support
those people and help them get the attention of the universities and
research center instead of complaining about them...

>Why use Thymol with FGMO? FGMO is supposed to work fine on its own so it
>obviously does not need anything else. If you are going to use Thymol,
>why use FGMO when Thymol requires less labor, and is backed by
>independent studies that show it is effective?

That is a legitimate question. As far as I know (and as it seems to be in
my case) FGMO works progressively and it surely takes months to reach its
maximum efficiency level. I would also doubt that it would reduce to zero
the number of varroas.

I think that the idea behind that thymol addition is basically to catalyze
the process.... and also to create a dynamic between two partially or
totally efficient methods. There is no doubt that adding thymol is a second
insurance. The fact that thymol is added to something already efficient
would also permit to reduce its quantity... as Rodriguez did it. In such
conditions, may be it would be possible to allow thymol all year around.
The idea is far from crazy!  FGMO as modified could really be a big big
progress. By the way, combining approaches has been done with success
fighting against many human diseases like aids.

I will probably try myself to add oxalic acid to the cords. Oxalic acid is
naturally found in honey and bees wax. There is no smell problem etc. That
method would also surely be safer for the bees, the honey and the wax than
what we are doing with oxalic acid today: like the spray method, the
dripping and the sublimation. If efficient it would probably be also a
better solution than thymol. That would not be far from a very good
solution also.

As I said this is sometimes how progress are made. Lets be open to creative
solutions. This is what is called evolution...


Normand Choinière

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
-- Visit www.honeybeeworld.com/BEE-L for rules, FAQ and  other info ---
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::