SOME VOLATILE PLANT OILS AS POTENTIAL CONTROL AGENTS FOR VARROA MITES(ACARI, VARROIDAE) IN HONEY-BEE COLONIES (HYMENOPTERA, APIDAE)

Plant ethereal or essential oils are attractive chemicals for the cont rol of varroa mites on honey bees because they are perceived as 'natur al' compounds that will not contaminate: dive products. Currently, the re ate certain products that have been reported to work well under som e conditions. We screened compounds at 50% concentrations in a lab ass ay to see if they caused mite mortality. Once lab tested, field applic ations were evaluated. Material that killed mites in the lab were orig anum, a thymol mixture, clove, bay and tea tree: Origanum, the-thy, mo l mixture, cineole and the commercial product Bee Calm all dislodged v arroa mites, but Apistan((R)) strips (fluvalinate); applied after the oils, resulted in additional mites being removed from bees.