Bacillus Thurengiensis- Bt-Berliner--controlling varroa mites

[beandoggle]

I have heard that there is an organic product out now call Bt-Bacillus thurengiensus- Berliner. This is a spore product that you use on a piece of papaer and insert into the hives. The spores are not suppose to hurt humans and tests have shown to control varroa mites within a 3-5 day period.

Has anyone heard of this product? I am located in Ohio and would like to know where I can purchase this product for my bee hives. I am new to this new hobby and want to try to go organic. Please let me know.

[YBCute]

I believe it is still wrapped up in bureautic tape, not available yet from what I hear

[Fernhill]

I think you are looking for Metarhizium anisopliae fungus. It was originally developed as a termite control and has been found to be effective against varroa and SHB with no effect on bees, queens, honey or humans. I recently tried to locate a source of M.anisopliae and was told that production as a termite control was discontinued by the manufacturer. Believe me, if its efficacy as a varroa control is proven there will be manufacturers
beating down your door to sell it to you.

Hopefully sooner rather than later for all our sakes.

[BubbaBob]

See my post in the "Supply of Formic Acid Threatened" thread regarding Varroa Mite and SHB, posted at about 10 PM last night. The product will not be available for spring use, but will be available by fall according to the U of GA entomoligist I spoke to.

BubbaBob

[Michael Bush]

>Bt-Bacillus thurengiensus- Berliner.

This is used against wax moths and is currently available in Canada.

Search on here and you'll find a lot of discussions on it.

I think you're looking for the Metarhizium anisopliae fungus.

[Sundance]

I currently use BT on all my cabbage type plants for loopers and it works excellent. I can see why it would be effective on wax moths but wonder why it would not harm larval bees.

[Michael Bush]

It apparently only attacks certain moth larvae, not all insect larvae.

I can assure you when I used it it did NOT kill the varroa either.

[Robert Brenchley]

I've used it on broodboxes with no visible damage whatsoever. I'm assured that it only affects lepidoptera, so there shouldn't be any question of its attacking bee larvae. Particualr strains seem to be fairly specific to particular species of lepidoptera, but I don't know how pronounced that is, ie would the stuff I use on wax moth also kill cabbage white caterpillars, but do it a bit less efficiently?