Printable View
I saw on u tube the fat beeman using black walnut shavings in his smoker to rid the mites. I also heard tobacco smoke was also good for this. Dose anyone know a good source to get shavings or chips of black walnut? I live in southeast NC, and there aren't any near by. I like to use natural methods when I can.
If you find the right tree trimmer, I'll bet they would fill up your whole truck bed for you.
Was he using black walnut wood chips or dried black walnut hulls? -js
Never mind, I found it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRVD-qGPKm4
They are planer shavings.
Does anyone know who might sell them,shavings,or chips?
DAS, I have some black walnut planer shavings bagged up in my wood shop don't really know what would be significant about walnut compared to other wood species. I know that burning black walnut in a wood stove stinks and burning the bark is supposed to release a poisonous gas. Pm me and maybe I can get one of those cheap flat rate boxes of shavings to try.
Major
I don't know how to.can you pm me? Ha. Does anyone else know if this works? I know that it is bad for horse bedding. The toxins are bad on there feet.
How much smoke do you plan to use on your hives? I would think that if you are going to use it for general inspections then it's not going to make a difference. If you are planning to smoke them heavily then you could have other problems such as aggressive bees or smoke flavored honey.:)
Black walnut trees produce an allelopathic chemical that kills other plants. What effect that chemical (it's a quinolone if I remember correctly) has on insects I have no idea.
I've heard that the Amish like to use black walnut shavings in their condensers on top of the hive (a box with a screened bottom full of the shavings) because it repels mites and moths, but have no idea if that works.
Certainly you should NOT use tobacco smoke, it contains nicotine, which is a pretty good insecticide. Levels that kill mites are more likely to kill the bees, don't go there!
Peter
"All parts of walnut contain “juglone” (5 hydroxy-1,4- napthoquinone) Walnut trees also produce allergic symptoms in both horses and humans."
Amish and Quakers also use Sevin dust on crops, great example.
Black walnut hulls placed on the ground and sprayed with water releases a chemical irritant that makes earthworms surface to the top. But the same hulls get some kind of maggot in them if you leave them in a pile. I really don't think there would be anything to it but you never know. The chemical does seem to irritate some things.
You can purchase walnut media in most reloading shops. It is ground walnut hulls and it makes a good polishing media for brass. I assume you could drop it in a smoker.
Quakers to my knowledge (I am one) don't practice farming as a way of life, certainly not in the traditional communities that the Amish do. I don't use Sevin and don't know of anyone who does. Generalities can be dangerous.Quote:
Originally Posted by AmericasBeekeeper
I use Sevin sparingly on plants in the garden that do not get visited by bees. It is one of the least problematic of all of the insecticides.Quote:
Originally Posted by Andrew Dewey
The fatbeeman on u tube suggest a small amount of walnut shavings along with mostly pine straw. Not enough to create pure black walnut smoke. Does any one know of any other beekeeper who has tried this?
Not trying jump the post, but A quote from Les Crowder's page. He has been keeping bees without antibiotics, miticides or other chemical inputs for over fifteen years. When the Varoa mite first appeared in the US, he lost almost all of his hives. Determined not to become dependent on a chemical solution, he read the work of a honeybee researcher who advocated the use of various trees and shrubs as miticidal smokes. He tried smoking his hives with Juniper and Creosote and found them very effective in killing the mites.
From an email Bob Danka sent to me a while back. While I cannot speak specifically about juniper and creosote bush, I would bet that there are active ingredients in smoke of the burning foliage of these resinous plants. The basis for this is that Frank Eischen (USDA; previously of Weslaco, TX) showed quite a while ago that there are miticidal properties in smoke from various plants. Frank’s big one was grapefruit leaves. He had me collect leaves of camphor tree for testing.
Now, I said miticidal but I’m not sure that is the correct description. Varroa are very sensitive to being dislodged from bees by substances in smoke. I am not certain that all these chemicals are miticidal (i.e., actually kill mites) rather than simply irritants that cause the mites to fall off. However, falling off is clearly beneficial to some extent because some of the mites that have fallen can’t get back up onto bees.
Hope this helps,
Bob
Robert G. Danka
Research Entomologist
USDA, ARS Honey Bee Breeding, Genetics and Physiology Laboratory
1157 Ben Hur Road
Baton Rouge, LA 70820
I use juniper bark because it is so aboundant in my area. We don't have any grapefruit trees, so its leaves are hard to come by.
Thank you so much fur, this is exactly the info I am looking for.i can't find black walnut here in southeastern NC, but we do have juniper. I will try that with a sticky board to see if the mites release from the bees to get a count. Thanks again!!