newbie beekeeper here trying to catch his first swarm. I bought a russian swarm lure called "Apiroi." Reading the chemical composition it looks to be a traditional synthetic nasonov pheromone consisting of citral and geraniol. It comes in a gel form. The instructions say to put 1 gram of the gel on the entrance of the hive and if it's a new hive, smear additional 10grams? on the inside of the hive. My hive is an unused top bar hive I built last summer.
So my question is - should I trust the instructions or better be safe and not risk over-scenting my beehive? 10grams sounds like a lot when seeing that people using lemongrass oil only use couple drops.
I would think the 10 grams is overkill, you will likely chase them off while it is strong. Smear it around thin enough will cause it to vaporize and air out quickly.
Look on David Cushman's site he also has a homemade lure with one or both of the ingredients you listed. May give direction on how much to use.
If you want it to last, put your lure in a snack size zip lock and place it on the top bars, I do this with LGO and SC and never refresh, it lasts the entire season.
Welcome!
I agree It does sound like a lot, I find that overdosing with scents usually turns the bees off and takes quite a while to fade back. It is easier to add more than to take away what you smeared in.
Thank you everyone for confirming my suspicion. I went ahead and applied some of the lure on the top of the top bars using a q-tip. Dabbed a bit on the entrance as well. And just to cover my bases I went with the other suggestion in the instructions - to hang some scented strips/strings to branches. So I cut couple pieces of cotton string, applied liberal amounts of the lure on them and tied those to couple easily accessible branches well away from the hive.
I figured that this way, if the suggested dosages were indeed correct, I might catch some swarms on those. If it's an overkill, it will hopefully not drive the bees away from the more mildly scented hive.
I work from home so it's easy for me to keep an eye on the strings and should there be a swarm, I should be able to spot it and react swiftly.
This last year I still put only a q-tip or four drops of lemongrass oil in the hive, but I put more on the outside. Too much inside drives the bees out. The extra on the outside seemed to get their attention better while not overwhelming them with too much inside. 10 grams sounds like too much for inside to me.
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