How to Treat Varroa with Essential Oils: Apiguard, Api Life Var, and Thymovar

This video shows you how to use three essential oil products to treat varroa mites: Apiguard, Api Life Var, and Thymovar. The active ingredient in Apiguard is thymol. Api Life Var contains four essential oils: thymol, eucalyptus, menthol, and camphor. In Canada, Thymovar is the approved essential oil treatment product.

These essential oil treatments can be effective for varroa mites within an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) approach. They use natural substances as their active ingredients. Always resample after treatment to confirm that the treatment worked.

This is the third in a series of short videos from the Honey Bee Health Coalition on how to manage varroa mites successfully.

Why should you effectively manage varroa mites in your honey bee colonies? Every honey bee colony in North America either has varroa mites or will in just a few months. When colonies are not treated, or are treated ineffectively, they weaken and may be more susceptible to other negative factors, such as pesticide damage, virus infections, and other maladies. Failure to control mites endangers not only your colonies but also colonies in other apiaries and feral honey bees in your area. Widespread colony deaths can cause major economic damage for beekeepers and harm essential agricultural pollination services.

Whether you have a few colonies or you manage large apiaries, these videos show practical steps you can use to better control varroa mites.

LINKS:
The Honey Bee Health Coalition: https://honeybeehealthcoalition.org
More varroa resources: https://honeybeehealthcoalition.org/v...