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)

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Li Y., Helfenstein J., Swart R., Levers C., Mohr F., Diogo V., Bürgi M., Williams T. G., Zafeiriou R., Zarina A., Ammann J., Rolo V., Verburg P. H., Beckmann M., Hernik J. and others
Agroecological and technological practices in European arable farming: Past uptake and expert visions for future development.
Land Use Policy, 153, 2025, Article 107553.

Diogo V., von Ow A.
Assessing the environmental synergies and trade-offs of scenario-based transformations in the Swiss food system: current modelling approaches and opportunities for prospective LCA.
In: 89th LCA Discussion Forum - On the use of prospective LCA to support sustainability transitions. 5 February, Zürich (CH). 2025.

Williams T. G., Brown C., Diogo V., Magliocca N. R., Molla N., Rounsevell M. D. A., Zagaria C., Verburg P. H.
Power dynamics shape sustainability transitions in a modeled food system.
One Earth, 8, (1), 2025, Article 101158.

Diogo V., Williams T. G., Debonne N., Levers C., Herzog F., Bürgi M., Verburg P. H.
Developing an Agricultural Futures Framework to explore the option space for agricultural change in Europe under alternative value perspectives.
Sustainability Science, In Press, 2025.

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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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