Results of Research: Using Essential Oils for Honey Bee ... - BioBees

has a very smooth finish allowing an even coverage and it is too hard for the bees to chew up orremove; masonite or other similar material could be used just as well.4). Paper inserts at top of hive: For control of varroa mite on displaced nurse bees (seecomments above), we use 5.5 cc’s of wintergreen per cup of canola oil; we put this solution intoa honey bear (used as a squeeze bottle) and apply several lines of wintergreen oil mixture inboth directions on a paper towel so that the towel is saturated; the towel is then placed under theinner cover or in the upper supers where displaced nurse bees congregate. The bees chew it upand remove it in a week or so. These are replaced as needed to treat the varroa mites trying toavoid the other treatments. Be careful! Do not get the oil-wintergreen mixture directly onto thequeen.Notes About Grease Patties:1) a recent author stated that grease patties had no adverse effect on tracheal mites whenadministered to his colonies; the paper stated that the patties were purchased commercially. Becertain that the grease patties you make or buy contain plenty of grease or vegetable oil. It is thefree oil or grease that appears to suffocate tracheal mites and probably also, varroa mites. Webelieve that this physical suffocating function is enhanced or synergized by the essential oils.2). Several beekeepers have stated that they have used powdered or confectioner’s sugar inplace of granular sugar, or even replaced sugar with honey; some have also added canola oil tothe patties to make them softer and easier to apply with an ice cream scoop. The bees takethese softer patties more rapidly; and, if made with honey, the essential oils may enter into thefood chain of the bee larvae and thus impair development of the varroa mites. We plan to try toexamine this question in next year’s research.Conversion Factors: (go to the attached file called "measures")About Essential Oils: (go to the attached files, "oils" and "chemical")Safety in Using Essential Oils: (go the the attached file, "safety")Varroa Mite Assessment: You can place a detector board on the bottom of the hive incombination with patties and a tracking strip to obtain a count of varroa mites within 24 to 48hours. In our tests the essential oils killed more mites than Apistan.We make detector boards by making light wooden frames, a little smaller that the bottom boardarea, by stapling thin wooden molding strips at their corners to 1/8 inch hardware cloth (wirescreen); we then cut "freezer paper" (available in grocery stores in the U.S.; it has large size, isfairly thick, white and durable) to size, spray one side with "PAM" (a non-stick spray for fryingpans), and then staple it to the wooden strips on the side opposite the hardware cloth. Thesecan be assembled in a few minutes at a cost of $2 U.S. or less. Many bee supply housesprovide them at a fairly expensive price.Timing of Treatments:We have found that colonies, heavily infested with varroa mites in August, September andOctober, probably can not be saved. The treatments with grease patties and tracking strips willkill mites, but it is too late in the season to allow rearing of new, uninfested brood which wouldenhance survival of the colony. But, more importantly, even if all varroa mites are killed afterheavy infestation, the bees may still die from the acute bee paralysis virus, Kashmir virus orother viruses transmitted earlier by the varroa mites.However, strong, healthy colonies--free of mites in early September, but later overwhelmed byan influx of lost bees and mites from dying feral colonies or from untreated neighboringcolonies--can be protected and saved by using the grease patties + essential oils throughout the