BBKA Forum

Hi all.
I'm looking to find a natural means of verroa control as I would preferably not use chemicals (though if i have to i will) but would like to ask you folks on your opinions i heard Mint and thyme essential oils are effective, as is powdered sugar. Is there any others people know and use? or guides. many thanks.

There are 'hard chemicals' such as Amitraz based products and Bayvarol/Apistan. Thymol, for example, is not such a 'hard' chemical which you may find preferable.
As far as icing (powdered) sugar dusting is concerned, there have been some who have used it (say every few days to get the varroa concentration down) but the practice seems to have gone out of fashion.

Whatever you choose needs to be highly effective otherwise you are wasting your time and in some cases risking the mites gaining immunity.
The natural treatments tend not to be reliable
The treatments we regard as hard such OA or the formic acid in Maqs are synthesized from natural products and meet the criteria above.
If you want to stay clear of the mite treatment police you also have to make sure the product is licenced -thymol isn't.
If you really want to do the natural route why not continue looking but in the mean time keep them at bay with traditional methods
A thriving mite poulation will do more harm than any chemical treatment ever could
There's also the non treatment option which some claim works but I liken that to sending your kids back to school with nits untreated

I am not sure whether adding thymol to syrup is a big no no? (In the way that using native Oxalic Acid is supposed to be). I can't recall seeing much negative stuff about adding thymol to syrup - Hivemaker's recipe has often been repeated?
Happy to be corrected.

However I was referring to thymol based treatments such as Apiguard. (In my head at least, although you were not aware of that Alfred! ).

I don't think it's is frowned on it just doesn't get the discussion.
I thymolate the autumn syrup but that's primarily to keep the feeders clean

Thymol is approved in regards to api guard and I think api lifevar……. Adding thymol to syrup was never a varroa treatment or claimed to be. Its use is for the prevention of nosema and it works.
A lot of the essential oil type treatments had a following some years ago, some would apply through fogging. They are pretty ineffective and most have moved on. Those that haven’t have a lot of dead bees.

Isnt thymol treatment in syrup feed in autumn good for the prevention of Nosema?

Make sure to keep the varroa trays in place if using icing sugar or you will create a mass robbing attack from it falling through the mesh floor.

Even better use the icing sugar for decorating your Victoria sponge. It has never been proven to be effective at varroa control.My advice is find something that works and use it. And use varroa floors to count before and after treating to make sure what you used worked.
If you are wanting to use something natural that is (usually) very effective then try vaping with oxalic acid which is a naturally occurring organic acid and is also found in all natural honeys. But read up on how to use it safely (apiboxal is the legal form of OA allowed for vaping). The most effective application methods are the positive pressure ones, such as a sublimox. They force the vapor to spread throughout the hive. The passive wands that are used under the floors are perhaps a little less effective.

I have seen a decent varroa drop after icing sugar dusting (a demo was done at the asscoiation apiary eons ago). However if it needs to be done regularly to have any effect, I wonder whether the negative effect on the colony by opening them every few days for 3 weeks is going to be too much. Possibly too much both for the bees and the beekeeper as any more than a couple of hives would make the job very time-consuming.