Subject: Bees and Bee Mite Infestation - One Solution

From: [email-masked] (unknown)
Date: 7 Sep 1996 06:02:22 GMT

Well in regard to the bee mite and the wild honeybees, the following
 article may be of help to you in terms of helping domestic hives as
 well as wild ones.  The article was in the Sept. 6, 1996 issue of  
“The Denver Post”. It is by David Sharp of the AP.

Mint oils saving bees from mites, keeper finds

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- It sounds like a fold remedy, but a West Virginia
 University entomologist says it works:  Use natural oils -- spearmint,
 wintergreen, peppermint -- to ward off mites preying on wild honeybees.
  The proof, James Amrine says, can be seen in 46 nearby honeybee 
colonies where applications of wintergreen have produced the 
healthiest honeybees in years  “there is no doubt those bees are
 almost back to where they were before these mites came into this 
country,”  he said.  The mites, which entered the United States 12 
years ago, have destroyed 90 percent of wild honeybees, researchers 
say.  

Last spring, commercial and hobbyist beekeepers reported average losses
 of 50 percent in 22 states surveyed by the Georgia-based American 
Beekeeping Federation, said Troy Fore, executive secretary.    The 
harsh winter contributed to losses, especially in northern-tier states 
such as Maine, which reported 80 percent losses.  The losses follow a 
continual weakening of honeybees since the mites appeared in the 
mid-1980’s.  The original invader, the tiny tracheal mite, crawls
 into the breathing tubes of bees and lives off their blood, 
weakening and killing them

In Cumberland, Md. about 60 miles east of Morgantown, Bob Noel 
stumbled upon his natural-oils remedy when mites struck his colonies
 last year.  He put wintergreen oil in a hamburger-patty-shaped 
mixture of shortening and sugar, then placed it in a hive.  “I said,
 ‘Well, they’re dying anyway.’  I came back a couple of days later,
 and there were not mites on the bees.  There were several thousand 
(dead) mites on the bottom of the hive,” he said.