Cotton rope and Mineral Oil

[BearHill]

A long-time commercial beekeeper gave a presentation to the local bee club on this topic a few years back and had a slightly different formula: food-grade mineral oil, thymol, honey and beeswax. He would soak upholstery cord in the mixture and place a length of it in each of his hives in the fall. I'm fairly certain he said it worked on both kinds of mites. His story was encouraging, but I never got around to trying it myself.

[oldrockbees]

Interesting thoughts on the cotton rope and fgmo. I like the idea vs. using what i think would be harsher treatments with the normal pesticides. My question is when would you put the ropes on the hives and for how long? Also, do you just put in brood boxes or in the honey supers as well? Would that have any affect on the honey taken out for our use?

[N2ishon]

I use a 30 inch piece of cord and make an "s" across the tops of brood frames. There is no reason it connot be used on honey supers, but I don't use them there. I havn't used the thymol yet, but I would refrain from thymol with honey supers. There is no effect from the fgmo on honey. The bees work out the cord into schreds over time, coating their thorax with oil which retard the attachment of mites.

[oldrockbees]

Thanks for the info. I might try this as treatment. My other question with this treatment is when to do it? Is there a better time that others to use this cotton rope and mineral oil, or do you do it year round?

[svbeeco]

It seems there is interest in using coconut oil introduced to hives via cotton "Facial Pads" See: http://nutiva.com/articles/colony-collapse-disorder/

Perhaps the cotton rope may also work well with this oil. Dr. Mussen (UC Davis) is supposed to be doing a trial to see if there is any usefullness in coconut oil as a treatment for Varroa.

Bill