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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)

Projektnummer: 22.08.13.07.01

Mikrobielle Ressourcen von Agroscope

Agroscope's microbial collections comprise bacteria, yeasts, fungi, viruses, phytoplasms and algae. Since their creation, Agroscope has acquired thousands of isolates from environments as diverse as fermented foods, milk and milk products, soil, plants, insects, animals, and humans. The conservation and curation of this unique heritage of the Swiss microbial biodiversity, with some strains isolated from vanished habitats, finds many daily applications in a large variety of fundamental and applied research projects paving the way to an agriculture in line with the values of agroecology. In this sense, these microbial resources represent the foundation of many current and future projects at Agroscope. It is therefore fundamental to thoroughly curate, characterize and preserve them on the long run, as well as to make them available to the research, together with reliable, accurate, and manageable information.

Name, Vorname Standort
Baumeyer Brahier Alexandra Liebefeld
Grabenweger Giselher Reckenholz
Grasso Fabio Liebefeld
Kurpan Daniel Liebefeld
Roetschi Alexandra Liebefeld
Shani Noam Liebefeld
Von Ah Ueli Liebefeld

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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