Feel free to get in touch if you need to yarn about them Fraz.. happy to share my experiences with you if it may help.
Effectiveness of varroa treatment
- Thread starter Alastair
- Start date
problem is @yesbut you share something and next minute you are getting pilloried for supposed wrong doings and even have randoms who never actively participate in the forum contacting @Grant with allegations of illegal beekeeping doings being discussed on the forum like the recent fiasco of suggesting letting the bees rob the honey out of a car boot being illegal which of course it isn’t.
Not to mention the recent thread by @Old Timer .
On the subject of @Old Timer
ive spent quite some time looking for info on the testing and research around the length of time synthetic strips hold the active ingredient at the required dose and have found nothing yet and despite asking if anyone can point me in the right direction there’s been no info put forward at all.
Frazz, we can only go on manufactures instructions, they got the registration for the product to be used as a veterinary treatment, and as we sell/harvest our honey we declare that we have followed those instructions.
Is there a built in safety factor with these strips-perhaps- I don't know nor am I wanting to experiment to find out, bees are hard enough to keep alive at the best of times. If you don't want to sell any food/products off your hives go do what you want and try a few to see.
Same for me. In reflection and with what Stoney shared early on, I figure if I were to try those gibs again- I would add them slowly. Not 3 at once. Like one at a time,
I've been thinking about Formic since someone shared a product link
I had great success with Formic, using nasenheider dispensers, and posted on here about it several years ago.
Treatment was cents per hive, and it was as effective as any of the synthetic strips.
I only gave it away because the fumes permeate everything including the timber, and started dissolving the nails that hold the supers together.
Maybe it's time for me to re nail all my boxes with aluminium nails, and dig out the formic.
Treatment was cents per hive, and it was as effective as any of the synthetic strips.
I only gave it away because the fumes permeate everything including the timber, and started dissolving the nails that hold the supers together.
Maybe it's time for me to re nail all my boxes with aluminium nails, and dig out the formic.
which is exactly the kind of reply I expected.
I play by the book. I was making an observation which you pretty much confir.
I used to have aluminium lids, the formic ate them too.
If we could have the discussion without claims of "proof that" it would be great to continue the discussion, problem.now as with the OA staples, the OP is on the defensive rather than being open
Perhaps it was the alloy?
My research at the time was that formic does not eat aluminium. So, when I investigated another method of dispensing formic, the "flash" method, i built the units from aluminium, and the formic was applied directly to the aluminium. I still have those units and there is no damage to the aluminium other than the normal surface oxidation.
There is a strong belief that stainless steel is the way to go. No. Formic eats stainless steel.
😂 I am offering to share info if so required with Fraz is that ok or against the rules?
It is against the rules.
That is why the Mail system within the forum got shut down.
How can the rest of us learn if the discussion is between 2 or 3 people off line (not in the general forum).
😂 I am offering to share info if so required with Fraz is that ok or against the rules?
thanks for communicating that nice and clearly Trevor. My apologies.
Both those threads look fine to me.....I had copy & paste & move post & browser back & forth like a madman for a while thoNo, it was moved to the formic acid thread
Which for some reason won't link.
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Awesome info Alistair! Thank you. Good reading for a wet day.OK, done. Found this thread from 2012. Unfortunately the poictures posted have disapeared, I think that was because Photobucket started to want an inordinate amount of money to maintain them.
I'm also not sure if it's the thread I discussed nasenheider in but will search that out later when I have time.
No state secrets, happy to share.
Using a Formic Acid Fumigator
Here's a method I've been using several years to treat with formic acid. I've been using strip treatments also but over the last year have had resistant mites, so looks like formic acid will become a bigger part of the treatment schedule. The way I do this is just a 24 hour treatment. I took thes...www.nzbees.net
Phil is great to deal with, very helpful with advice. Have argued with him a few times when I thought he was wrong then had to admit he was right. Fast response in getting strips to us even when I am at fault and should have ordered ahead of time, bucket loads of staples will arrive in 2-3 days.
We continue to use them very happily. I do believe that best practice in ones operation is a a learnt thing. Things like pollination versus no pollination, number of other beeks and who they are within close proximity too, all have an effect on the end result .
In another thread I said that our losses to varroa were higher than normal for us this season. 8% in autumn to varroa and 2% queen issues.
I am taking an educated guess that our problems stem from us missing an extra round of treatment in some of the hives at the end of spring. We thought they were ok (no alcohol washes so a guess, that we would now say was wrong).
We do pollination and have increased our focus on treatments, our main focus for next season will be thymol cords and oxalic staples