Salts of Lithium as an acaricide

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BDT123
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Salts of Lithium as an acaricide

Unread post by BDT123 »

Maybe Lithium has potential as a mite killer.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-19137-5.pdf
Brian
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Countryboy
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Re: Salts of Lithium as an acaricide

Unread post by Countryboy »

Don't hold your breath.

The researchers also filed a patent for using it. In that patent, they noted that it is extremely toxic to brood.
Folks in northern areas might be able use it when the bees are broodless, if they can get the bees to take syrup then. (Usually too cold for them to take syrup then.) I believe it also lowers the lifespan of adult bees...not what you want to happen when the bees are broodless.

And God forbid you feed them too much, and they try to store it, and it gets fed to brood in a couple months. The brood all die.

You might be able to use it feeding a swarm or starting package bees.

It sounds great, but once again, the easiest way to kill all the mites in a hive is to kill all the bees.
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Allen Dick
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Re: Salts of Lithium as an acaricide

Unread post by Allen Dick »

It's just another one of those flash in the pan things. People need news so anything that comes along as reported whether it's useful or not. We keep hearing about things that will kill bacteria or cancer cells but when we read the articles we find out that this miracle only works in a petri dish and it's toxic, it can't be administered effectively, or it does not have the necessary persistence to be effective.

We've seen that with a lot of varroa curesc including some on the market.
Allen Dick, RR#1 Swalwell, Alberta, Canada T0M 1Y0
51° 33'39.64"N 113°18'52.45"W
http://www.honeybeeworld.com/Allen%27s%20Beehives.kmz
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