Thymol

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)

Robust cattle, sheep and goats in green alder shrubs – or how to preserve mountain pastures.

Institutional Repository Agroscope

Pauler C., Lüscher A., Kreuzer M., Bérard J., Schneider M. K.

Robust cattle, sheep and goats in green alder shrubs – or how to preserve mountain pastures.

Grassland Science in Europe, 27, 2022, 247-249.

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Link: Grassland Science in Europe Vol. 27

Abstract:

Green alder shrubs (Alnus viridis) increasingly overgrow mountain pastures and impair ecosystem services by loss of biodiversity, eutrophication and greenhouse gas emissions. Over the centuries, grazing livestock, especially goats, preserved these ecosystems by impeding shrub expansion. Nowadays, livestock numbers are decreasing on remote mountain pastures and goat farming has become unprofitable. A grazing experiment tested if robust cattle and sheep can replace goats as antagonists of green alder and if the available fodder is sufficient. GPS tracking and vegetation mapping were used to analyse movement behaviour and debarking activity of Dexter cattle, Engadine sheep and Pfauen goats. The forage quality of green alder and its understorey was unexpectedly high. Cattle used the space least evenly, preferred flat slopes and open pastures, spent least amount of time in green alder and did not debark any green alder branches. Engadine sheep visited the shrubs nearly as often as goats, but preferred flat slopes and short vegetation. Unexpectedly, this sheep breed debarked a significantly higher share of green alder branches than goats. Dexter cattle cannot replace goats for fast green alder clearance but they may impede shrub encroachment in the long term. Engadine sheep are well suited to recreate biodiverse semi-natural open pastures and maintain their ecosystem services.

Publication-ID (Web Code): 49791 Sending by e-mail

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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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Thymol

Robust cattle, sheep and goats in green alder shrubs – or how to preserve mountain pastures.