At 02:28 PM 9/14/96 -0400, you wrote: > Gerry Visel wrote. >> Hallelu-ya!!! Thanks so much for posting the status of your work. >There is hope!! > Very well done! >> One question: would wintergreen or the other oils now fall into the >"miticide" >family now that needs FDA approval in the US?? I sure hope not >(but presume so!) > > > >At long last! I was beginning to think essential oil treatment would be >another lead balloon!! > How could the FDA ban a natural substance? Surely it's up to the >individual to decide whether to use it or not? There is no way anyone can >claim essential oil as their own pro-priority brand, and only a fool would >apply to the FDA for approval, the cost would be astronomical, with no >return!! How are they going to know you use it, if you don't tell them? > IMHO we should give these folks big hearty congratulations, now we >can stop using Apistan, and it's cheaper. > Just think Aaron can now wait and get his fall honey crop! > If we can persuade enough of the others we might be able to save the >world's wax situation. I read somewhere it would take 50 years to >decontaminate the wax supply of existing fluvalinate. > > **************************************************** > * David Eyre 9 Progress Drive, Unit 2, * > * The Beeworks, Orillia, Ontario, L3V 6H1. * > * [log in to unmask] 705-326-7171 * > * http://www.muskoka.net/~beeworks * > * Agents for: E H Thorne & B J Sherriff UK. * > **************************************************** > Dear David, EPA has exempted a lot of materials listed as essential oils; the info can be found in the Federal Register, Vol 61, No. 45, Weds. Mar. 6 1996 (listed many essential oils including cironella, lemongrass, mint, peppermint, etc.) and Fed. Reg., vol. 59, no. 187, Weds., Sep 28, 1994 (Inert ingredients in Pesticide Products--listed mineral oil and wintergreen) Don't toss the Apistan--keep it handy as a tool that may be needed down the road. Hopefully, its cost will come down now that it has some competition. The following is results of our recent research: We recently found (in colonies treated with tracking strips at the entrance and grease patties over the brood chambers) that displaced nurse bees, under the inner cover, are used as a shelter by the mites. Placing a piece of paper towel under the inner cover, with canola containing wintergreen or tea tree oil (8cc per cup), was enough to kill the mites on these bees. (We hear that mite solution is 7% tea tree oil in vaseline). We also found that colonies with lots of supers and thus lots of space made mite control more difficult. Thus we recommend getting the honey supers off as soon as possible and reducing colonies to 1 and 1/2 or 2 chambers. We found that some of our colonies, treated only with tracking strips and grease patties were infested with varroa: there were very few on the adults (thus the ether roll would have come up with 1-4 mites), but the mites were reproducing, at normal levels, in worker brood cells. The few remaining drone cells had lots of mites in them (13 Sep 96). So the tracking strip and grease patties are lethal to exposed mites, but the mites escape the treatment by going into cells being capped. Thus we conclude that the essential oils in tracking strips and grease patties do not enter the food chain sufficiently to impair mite development. The colonies that were fed syrup in addition to tracking strips and grease patties were virtually free of the mites, without using any Apistan. So, each time we closely examine the bees, we learn a little more. Sincerely, Jim Amrine Sincerely, Jim Amrine Division of Plant & Soil Sciences P. O. Box 6108, West Virginia University Morgantown, WV 26506-6108 <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> <> Telephone: 304-293-6023 <> <> Fax: 304-293-2960 <> <> web: http://www.wvu.edu/~agexten/varroa.htm <> <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> ------------------END OF FILE-------------------