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Thymol

thymolbehandlung_20170128

In the 1990s, the Bee Research Centre took part in a screening programme testing the potential effectiveness of over 100 essential oils and essential oil components against the varroa mite. Although sage, hyssop and thyme oils proved interesting, only thymol has been used in acaricide products. Thymol treatments require little effort, and there are a variety of preparations on the market. The advantages and drawbacks of thymol use are listed in the articles "Apilife VAR: A new varroacide with thymol as the main ingredient" and "THYMOVAR for Varroa control".

Use of essential oils for the control of Varroa jacobsoni (Oud.) in honey bee colonies (PDF, 1 MB, 20.01.2017)
A. Imdorf, S. Bogdanov, R. Ibáñez Ochoa, N. W. Calderone (1999)

Marie Therese Fröhlich-Wyder

Picture

Dr.sc.techn., Lebensmittelingenieurin ETH

Forschungsgruppe

  • 22.00.18.03 Käsequalität, Kulturen und Terroir

Funktion

Wissenschaftliche Projektleiterin und Mitarbeiterin 

Marie Therese Fröhlich-Wyder

Agroscope
Schwarzenburgstrasse 161
3003 Bern
Schweiz

Tel. +41 58 463 82 23

Standort Liebefeld

Marie Therese Fröhlich-Wyder

Marie Therese Fröhlich-Wyder

Tätigkeiten

Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin und Projektleiterin

Weitere Informationen

Lehrbeauftragte an der Hochschule für Agrar-, Forst- und Lebensmittelwissenschaften HAFL der Berner Fachhochschule

Apilife VAR: A new varroacide with thymol as the main ingredient (PDF, 103 kB, 20.01.2017)
A. Imdorf, S. Bogdanov, V. Kilchenmann, C. Maquelin (1994)

"THYMOVAR" for Varroa control (PDF, 75 kB, 27.01.2017)
F. Bollhalder (1998)


Although the use of thymol leads to residues in the wax and honey, these are negligible from a toxicological viewpoint. Since about 2008 the use of thymol-based products has been declining in Switzerland, and beekeepers making use of these products have tended to experience greater winter losses than those using e.g. formic acid.

Thymol residues in wax and honey after Apilife VAR treatment (PDF, 757 kB, 14.09.2016)
S. Bogdanov, A. Imdorf, V. Kilchenmann (1998) 

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