apistan shelf life

Ive got apistan strips left over from a packet opened last year. Does it lose its potency or would they be still ok to use?

More to the point, why on earth are you still using Apistan, As far as I know Varroa is resistant to it in the Midlands region.

fine to have used as a one off (especially if sensitivity checked first) but not two years in a row on same colonies.

Bees some times don't recognize thmolated sugar syrup as food. You could try spraying a little onto the bees they then have to clean it of each other then recognizing it as food.

namal said:

Bees some times don't recognize thmolated sugar syrup as food. You could try spraying a little onto the bees they then have to clean it of each other then recognizing it as food.

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I'll have a half.

I'm pretty sure it does lose its efectiveness if its left open
Maybe if it had cling film on though it could be ok
In the foil packet it has a use by thats around 3 years from sale

northernsoul said:

More to the point, why on earth are you still using Apistan, As far as I know Varroa is resistant to it in the Midlands region.

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Tried it again myself this year as it's been about 10 years now since last use. As expected it did kill some mites, but I've now followed up with Apiguard and still getting drops of hundreds. Conclusion, Apistan on it's own just wouldn't have been good enough. Still possibly useful though as an emergency measure to buy some time.

drstitson said:

fine to have used as a one off (especially if sensitivity checked first) but not two years in a row on same colonies.

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namal said:

Bees some times don't recognize thmolated sugar syrup as food. You could try spraying a little onto the bees they then have to clean it of each other then recognizing it as food.

Click to expand...

Welcome to the forum.
Unfortunately, your post isn't relevant to this particular discussion.

Chris B said:

Tried it again myself this year as it's been about 10 years now since last use.

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I also tried some this year on a few colonies, have never used it before, nor bavarol, worked reasonably well, but still not effective enough to be the only treatment used.

Shelf life is from date of manufacture, not date of purchase. The expiry date is clearly shown on the box and likely the individual packs - if it doesn't have one, it is out of date. Strips are in sealed packs of two. They are expected to be used together. The last box of Apistan I saw, on a large agricultural retailer's shelf, in Devon, was already out of date! So watch out when purchasing.

APistan

sound like a place where they run out of Stingers and now use RPGs instead.

Bees some times don't recognize thmolated sugar syrup as food. You could try spraying a little onto the bees they then have to clean it of each other then recognizing it as food.

namal said:

Bees some times don't recognize thmolated sugar syrup as food. You could try spraying a little onto the bees they then have to clean it of each other then recognizing it as food.

Click to expand...

Needle stuck?

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