amiflex mite treatment

[tristan]

https://www.veto-pharma.com/products/amiflex/

something thats a little new thats been recently released in usa.
its basically a gel containing amitraz used as a flash treatment. lasts 7 days, reapply at 14 days. squirted in with a caulking gun.

downside is extra labor to go do it and be on time, as with all flash treatments. its open to user error, especially as people tend to overdose, or might under dose to save dollars.
upside is it could well work really nicely with OAE strips, as a single dose, and replace the spring treatment. it would do a good knockdown and let the oxalic handle the rest.
the big factor would be cost. i've only seen one price (in usa), so no idea how accurate that is. but one dose plus staples would still be far cheaper than amitraz/bayvarol/etc and more reliable than oae on its own. that might be the thing that gets beeks away from only using synthetic strips and help combat resistance.

your thoughts??

 

[Alastair]

Don't like it.

You mentioned user error as in over or under dosing. But what I think is a problem with these several shot treatments, is the beekeeper not getting back for the next shot in the right time frame.

I discovered this personally when I tried to treat all my hives with oxalic acid vapour, which had to be done every 3 days, seven times. You get held up by weather, other stuff that comes up, or whatever, and don't get back in the right time frame. The whole treatment course then falls apart, as another generation of mites has been able to get back into brood cells and reproduce.

My view, if there is anything could contribute to amitraz resistance in varroa mites, it would be something like this. In the US for many years they have been (illegally) applying amitraz to hives via shop towels, which is similar to Amiflex in that to do a good job it had to be applied twice, in the right time frame. Dose was also dependent on the whims of the beekeeper. Can't say it's related, but they do have amitraz resistance in the US now.

 

[tristan]

yeah i'm not a fan of flash treatment for that reason. hence why i think its better used with something thats longer term.

resistance i'm not sure on. the standard idea is leaving strips in to produce low levels for a long time causes resistance. where as this flash treatment would be removed quickly and not leave behind low levels for a long time. so quite possible it wouldn't add to resistance issues more than strips would.

under dosing is probably the worse thing, but then again people do that with strips. we had that in the early days. the story was that the strips where really strong so you can get away with putting in half the strips. nowadays its claimed the strips last a long time and can be reused.

i think it might be handy as another tool in the tool box.