Pest control

[Jessaboo]

Again, I'll apologize ahead of time for the fact that this may be a stupid set of questions but I think I must be missing something here.

I've been reading about grease patties and Honey B Healthy and menthol and I am more confused then ever.

So here's the thing - the wintergreen grease patties are to help control varroa mites. The Honey B Healthy (spearmint and lemon grass oils) are to help boost the general health of the hive to stave off viruses etc. transmitted by varroa. Menthol is to keep away wax moth and tracheal mites.

Can't I combine these things?

In other words - can I make a grease patty that has wintergreen, spearmint, lemon grass and menthol in it? Would the bees be hurt by ingesting any of these things? Do they actually EAT a grease patty or is is just distributed through the hive as the bees rub against the thing and dismantle it to remove from the hive? If they don't eat the grease patty can I reverse this and make a Honey Bee Healthy that includes wintergreen and menthol that they would ingest?

Here are the two recipes I am going on right now FYI:

" 'Honey Bee Healthy' Recipe
5 cups water
2 1/2 pounds of sugar
15 drops each of spearmint and lemongrass oils
1/8 teaspoon lecithin granules
You have to dissolve the granules in very hot (almost boiling) water and let it cool prior to incorporating the oils into the mixture. The lecithin is an emulsifier and helps disperse the oils in the water mixture.

Wintergreen Grease Patty
4.4 pounds (1814.4 g) of granulated sugar
3 ounces (88.8 ml) of corn oil
1.5 Pounds (680.4 g) of vegetable shortening
1 pound (463.4 g) of honey
1/2 Pound (226.8 g) of mineral salt
2.2 ounces(65 ml) of wintergreen oil.

Thanks.

- Jess

[fermentedhiker]

I haven't played around with grease patties much so take this with a grain of salt.  The only problem I see with your idea is the menthol.  Bees don't particularly care for it and it might discourage them from taking the patties.  I haven't heard of Menthol as a treatment for wax moths, just Tracheal mites.  Beyond that I couldn't say if it would help to use a combination recipe for your patties.

[Brian D. Bray]

menthol is a treatment for Tracheal mites, Bt (Certain) is a treatment for wax moths, and Oxalic acid is a treatment for Varroa mites.

It might be more cost effective to combine treatments for different pests into one application but then extreme care must be taken to insure that the combination of "cures" doesn't become more toxic than the pest.  To my knowledge there has been little or no research on combining the application of treatments for the 3 pests listed so I'd not recommend it.

However, using a grease patty to impart menthol, pollen, and sugar to the bees at the same time has bee practiced for sometime.  But in this case you are treating a pest with the grease and mentol and addressing the nutritional needs of the hive with the pollen and sugar.  See the difference?