Essential oil plants and varroa

[Chrisfnvs]

I was reading a link that Hivemaker had posted about pollen and nectar values of plants and was interested to see that Lavender and other essential oil plants, were said to help reduce varroa levels in colonies that forage on them, we have some three hundred Munstead Lavender planted along the pathways in the garden, and the two colonies we have in the garden do seem to have a lower level of Varroa in them compared to the colonies in the other yards, I know we use Thyme in our hives in the form of Thymol, so i was just wondering about the bennifits of natural foraging on these plants in the fight against Varroa, chalkbrood, mould etc. Chris

 

[drstitson]

interesting thought - must see if our local members who have hives at the Lavender fields have lower varroa levels.

 

[RoofTops]

Essential oils are used in some commercial varroa treatments. Some of these oils are not so benign when in concentrated form - do a bit of Googling and you will come across tales of people making up scents and finding their plastic spoons melted. So I suspect it is not the nice smell which kills varroa but the flesh eating properties of the oils!

 

[drstitson]

"you will come across tales of people making up scents and finding their plastic spoons melted"

or smearing lemongrass oil all over their brand new poly hive and watching it dissolve!!!!!

 

[Finman]

.
That Hivemaker's bee plant text was full of mistages. The author have invented from his own head those "facts". If he mentions that plants have influence on varroa, the guy has not clear head.

Living plants does not kill varroa, and less dead plants. He has been guys who put into hives what ever stuff if he get something into mind. Just we talked about garlic, rhubard and so on holy spirit methods..

 

[Finman]

.
Essential oils like many other chemicals are part of plants protective system. Chemicals are reliesed when someone hurt the plant and break the cells. The protective chemical does not leak all the time.

Like eucalyptus trees have eucalyptus oils which affect on varroa, but I have never heard that flowers exrecete protection chemical and try to abandon pollinators.

 

[Hivemaker.]

.
The author have invented from his own head those "facts". If he mentions that plants have influence on varroa, the guy has not clear head.

Where is this text?,do you have a link to it.

 

[enrico]

It could work. We grow garlic and I can definitely say we have no vampires.
E

 

[Finman]

Where is this text?,do you have a link to it.

i cannot link to it with my phone internet.

 

[Hivemaker.]

i cannot link to it with my phone internet.

And i cannot find it,and i don't recall putting up any text that says that plants/flowers control varroa.

 

[Finman]

.
Chris wrote at te beginning. That we are now talking about.

 

[Hivemaker.]

.
Chris wrote at te beginning. That we are now talking about.

I see,it is just in the imagination then.

 

[greatbritishhoney]

Is this what we are talking about?

http://www.themelissagarden.com/TMG_Vetaley031608.htm

"Varroa do not like the smell of lavender, so aids bees in ridding themselves of mites"

 

[Hivemaker.]

Is this what we are talking about?

http://www.themelissagarden.com/TMG_Vetaley031608.htm

"Varroa do not like the smell of lavender, so aids bees in ridding themselves of mites"

Yes i remeber that link,put up for the quantity of nectar/pollen collected,had not seen that comment about varroa,athough the essential oil when extracted by man is useful,i cannot see much use regards varroa control in the bees foraging on it. Thank you GB.

 

[greatbritishhoney]

Yes i remeber that link,put up for the quantity of nectar/pollen collected,.

I missed the link first time round - it is very useful. Thanks

 

[Chrisfnvs]

When reading the text referring to Varroa not liking the smell of Lavender it caught my eye, as i grow a lot of Lavender in the garden, I was just interested in weather or not foraging on Lavender could have an effect on Varroa levels within the hive, as stated previously the two hives in the garden did have a lower level of mites compared to my other hives, but i had not thought too much about the reasons why, and was curious about the possible link to Lavender, i understand that collecting pollen and nectar are a totally different thing to extracting essential oils commercially, which may have some benefit, but if it is the smell of Lavender that the mites do not like, as suggested in the text, I just wondered if foraging on Lavender may have a small benefit in mite control, as posted earlier, It would be interesting to hear from members who have bees on large scale Lavender fields as to weather or not they have noticed any difference in mite levels, just thought i would ask the question. Chris

 

[BeeJayBee]

Dave Cushman's site has a list of plant oils that were tested for bee toxicity and also against Acarine, Varroa and AFB. This was in 1999, he said "In Phase II of this research, it is intended continue the work on the toxicity of the botanicals to mites and investigate the potential for micro encapsulated formulations being used as medicaments. " http: // www. dave-cushman .net / bee / naturaloils . html

This might be the follow-up research, dated 2002, but it's only an abstract, not the whole research document http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12797407
In laboratory conditions "Thyme, savory, rosemary, marjoram, dillsun and lavender essences at concentrations of 2 and 1 g/100 g (w/w), caused a mite mortality rate of more than 97% and 95%, respectively. When sprayed on worker honeybees infected with mites, thyme, savory, spearmint and dillsun essences at 2 g/100 g (w/w) caused 43-58% Varroa mortality. "

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Isn't thymol essetially (ooh was that a play on words) an extract of thyme? one of the members of my association has been using a more 'natural' method of mite control since the mite was first detected in the association apiary in 1988 - he smears this paste on a piece of hessian and puts it between the frames;
10g of thymol crystals
6 drops of tea tree oil
Olive oil, approx 25 ml (5 teaspoons)
Sunflower oil (I used Pura organic vegetable oil) approx 50 ml (10 teaspoons)
A few pieces of clean bees wax (walnut sized)
Two or three teaspoons of fine sugar (icing sugar) OR fondant
Lengths of hessian cut from an old sack *
* (Make sure the sack did not previously contain any chemicals)
He is very pleased with the results
So far, it has been very effective and no Varroa mites were found in
any of my colonies [inspection by SBI] during a thorough inspection in June this year (2011)
Although I suspect by 'no mites' you could read very low level.
But i suppose any different method is worth investigating

 

[Skyhook]

Isn't thymol essetially (ooh was that a play on words) an extract of thyme? one of the members of my association has been using a more 'natural' method of mite control since the mite was first detected in the association apiary in 1988 - he smears this paste on a piece of hessian and puts it between the frames;

When you say 'more natural, more natural than what? This is basically home-made apiguard- or to put it another way HM's thymol recipe witha bit of wax to rhicken it up- with a bit of tea-tree oil for luck.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Quote in the wrong place should have bee 'more natural' - remember he first used the recipe over 10 years ago when the use of harder chemicals such as bayvarol and Apistan were recommended. (he also does say that the reason he knocked this up was it was cheaper than the proprietary treatments) he does like to investigate alternative treatments/methods such as his peppermint hand rub to discourage bees from stinging during inspections.
But yes, basically home made Apiguard. I wasn't trying to promote a 'new revolutionary treatment' just following in the spirit of the original question and showing an alternative idea.
I think that 'a bit of tea-tree oil for luck' may well sum up that ingredient but it doesn't seem to have done any harm