Query - I would like to see how many of you have some of the more common types of wild plants or flowers(weeds to us) that would be a ‘beneficial’ type plant that would naturally keep the mites at bay. My side yard is not kept by anyone and there tends to be a fairly decent amount of the oxalic plant that grows there. Some of the responders say they have very little issue with the mites. Do these beekers have a natural way of defending against the mites without even knowing it? Does the pollen from these little ‘butter cups’ actually end up defending the cells without anyone knowing it?
Please take a look at your surrounding areas keeping in mind the plants that would have oxalic in the pollen and then respond back in time. Just interested in knowing.
This is the first I have heard of plants having Oxalics in the pollen. Do you have a list of plants that are high in Oxalic pollen? I haven’t ever heard this theory before.
Oxalic actually eaten by the mites has been in long term use via trickle. The only problem with repeated use is that it damages the bees’ malpighian system. That’s OK for all except the queen who lives much longer.
OSR (Canola) is high in oxalic and bees go absolutely crazy on it. There doesn’t seem to be any reduction in mites as a result though.
Oxalic acid kills mites by creating a drastic change in pH in the colony that kills the mites. No plant with natural levels of oxalic will do that. There is nothing “magic” about the oxalic, other than it is already naturally occurring in our food and in honey at low levels and not being very poisonous to humans at low levels.
My knowledge is anecdotal, I must admit
However. Trickled oxalic does not kill varroa in capped brood so it can be used only when the colony is broodless. Winter time?
Can you keep on top of mites with treatment just once a year?
I think not.
Hence you would have to treat more often?
Can you trickle as often as sublimate? because it seems that is what you might have to do.
PS
LASI reckon bees are harmed by repeated trickling oxalic
Don’t bother Jape with facts or science or research. He has been doing this for 100 years and knows more then any man alive or dead on the subject of beekeeping.
out of the mouths of babes… funny that is exactly how I would describe you. You don’t really seem to offer much other then letting everyone know how much you know, and how stupid everyone else is.
I can only assume you are here because you have been kicked or banned off of every other beekeeping forum, since you show little or no knowledge or interest in the Flow hive. So I am not entirely sure why are even here particularly.
If you want to see it as barking that is fine, but I won’t be bullied by your close-minded ignorance, nor tricked into putting more stock then I should into your methods which I mostly find deplorable and “anti-bee”.
I am sorry if everyone misunderstood. This was not a topic for discussion, it was meant to get information as a survey. A gathering of information to see if some people had better luck with beneficial plants or not and more or less in the line with mite reduction.
I will ask the monitor to remove this topic seeing how there are other topics that bode well for discussion.
Now that is interesting @bigB . The hops are a natural anti-bacterial which is why the British put them in their Pale Ales when they sent the beer around South Africa on the way to India - hence India Pale Ale or IPA. I am kind of wondering what might have been seeing how I took the last of my hops out last year.
I had ten varieties, mostly the ‘C’ hops and I did have one strain that was supposed to be the oldest hop in America. It came from a farm in New York - Cluster. The farm had been in the family for generations and the old timer, Bill, said they couldn’t kill it, dig up those rhizome’s, and the pestilence and disease didn’t effect it either.
I never saw too many bees around my hops, but maybe by the wafting of the pollen from the lupilin gland, some of those properties have in turn helped keep the disease and the mite population down. Thanks for the info.
Keep me up to date on what you find out this year.
I have added a list of plants that have some sort of oxalis in them. Granted the majority of the chemical is usually found in the leaf, but there is some trace in the pollen as well. How much gets entered into the hive depends on how much the bees would be foraging from local sources close to the hives. That is why I am looking to gather information on the plants, the quantity within the hives range and the amount of infestation.
Here are a couple of cites with lists of plants with oxalic acid in them.
That may be virus variants/hygeinic bees, whatever. Certainly if hop plants allow aphids to graze them they will not deter mites.
There is a proprietary hive miticide called Hopguard that uses oil of hops .
