Essential Oils

[steveouk]

My wife and i went to our local bee keeping club last night the 2 hour drive was worth it.

One of the topics raised was the use of two essential oils in Varroa Mite control. These oils where wintergreen essential oil and spearmint essential oil . The people there where trying it after reading about a study being done by West Virginia University.

Essential Oil Study i was wondering if any one else had read about this or even tried it ??


Stephen

[Michael Bush]

Yes, I've read about it, tried it and moved on to small cell.  Does it work?  My guess is that it helps, yes.  But it's work and you have to worry about where those essential oils end up and how much they interfere with the bee's pheromones.  I would definitely prefer them to Apistan or Checkmite.

[Robo]

I also tried essential oils many years ago and had mixed results at best.   After loosing too many hives I moved on.   Some claimed good results and others did not.   There was a lot of bashing of those who did not see good results as this was the accepted solution by many,  almost a cult like situation.   I don't doubt it worked for some,  I think some wanted it to work so convinced themselves any losses where caused by something else.   It was just too inconsistent for me,  there must be variables involved that I didn't or couldn't control.