# Thymol - Nosema treatment/prevention



## rrussell6870 (May 14, 2009)

I too have not been able to find any studies that can substantiate this. Having no real cases of nosema A. or nosema C. to study myself, I have been working with a few researchers in other areas that do have nosema C. and slight cases of nosema A. In order to test different methods of treatment and control... nosema A. still seems to not be resistant to Bicyclohexylammonium Fumagillin, despite the aggressive and somewhat excessive use of it over the years... however, some signs are apparent that nosema C. may not be effected nearly as much by treatments and may be more responsive to management practices and weather conditions...


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

There was a study done in Australia on essential oils against Nosema. I can't seem to find it again and I lost the link, but it was online at one time anyway and if I could just figure out how to word the search I think it could be found again. It showed Thymol and Lemongrass essential oil were the most effective against it while other essential oils were somewhat effective.


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## rrussell6870 (May 14, 2009)

That's interesting. I know that nozevit uses oak bark which is a source of tannins which are noted for anti-fungal/biotic properties... and hbh which is greatly relied upon by many for the potential nosema control of the spearment and lemongrass oils in it... but the study results are showing an even 50/50 of lowered spore counts and increased spore counts... so the effects thus far are less than promising... I must note however, that I am not the one performing the tests as I do not have any specimens to study, and the study colonies are low in numbers at this point, with only 20 colonies at each of three locations, with each testing fumigillan, nozevit, hbh, bleach, and control on five colonies per set... the lack of time left during this season will indeed halt our further studying the different methods of application, but we will start over again in spring with fresh counts and continue testing...


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## WI-beek (Jul 14, 2009)

Here are the trials I have found
http://docsdrive.com/pdfs/ansinet/pjbs/2005/1142-1145.pdf

http://www.apidologie.org/index.php...es/apido/full_html/2010/02/m09043/m09043.html

and I think this is one (sorry im not going to read all of it and im sorry if you do for nothing)
http://scientificbeekeeping.com/the-nosema-twins-part-5-alternative-treatments/

The first one is very impressive. But its one trial. You would think with the results they observed that its the most promising treatment available but there is virtually no other evidence out there to back it up. However, with the promising data provided by this trial you would think 20 more would have been done and published by now. Yet you cant find any. So the only thing I can conclude is the results were a freak occurrence and any similar trials since then failed and were not published. I hope I am wrong and there are a bunch of idiots out there wasting money and time on less important trials. It really sucks that there may be a BETTER treatment than fum-b that is much more affordable and at the same time organic but at the moment is folk lore till people with the resources give it credibility or add it to the long list of snake oil treatments.


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## rrussell6870 (May 14, 2009)

Randy can be long winded can't he? Lol. Don't answer that because I'm not any better about closing my mouth at times. Get two people with this affliction in the same room for a "cup of coffee" and you end up with a 14 hour discussion that started out about the weather and somehow covered every topic from trailer designs to microbiology to political issues to the best type of tomatoes for tomato sandwiches... its a curse really... ;-) 

The first thing that I will note about testing for nosema is that you will have to have a broad and heavy specimen sample... as the older bees will of course have higher counts than the younger bees... I prefer to collect no less than 60 foraging bees as they return to the hives so that I am sure that I am getting a decent sample the second study that you mentioned may have been flawed by that very phenomenon... as are moat tests, even some that are performed at some of the usda bee labs... in control colonies, the spores counts drop dramatically just by the older foragers that were brood at the time of the early stress of infection dying off and being replaced by bees that were reared in better conditions... this has thrown many study results in a tail spin... the samples taken for the study in question were quite small (2 bees from caged bulks) and thus the actual age and individual infection levels of the bees in the samples could not be determined...

From the study...

"""""""""The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of thymol and resveratrol administered
in two different formulation modes (candy and syrup) on the development of Nosema
ceranae and on the longevity of honey bees. Emerging bees from a nosema-free
apiary were individually infected with 1 μL of sucrose syrup containing
18000 spores of N. ceranae, placed in cages, and kept in an incubator at
33 °C and 65% RH. The experimental groups were fed candy or syrup prepared with thymol
(100 ppm) or resveratrol (10 ppm). Infection levels were monitored over a 25 day period by
removal and dissection of two live bees per cage. On day 25, post-infection bees fed with
thymol syrup had significantly lower levels of infection (60 ± 9 million spores/bee)
compared to control bees (138 ± 7 million spores/bee). Bees fed with thymol or resveratrol
syrup lived significantly longer (23 and 25 days, respectively) than bees fed with control
syrup (20 days). Thymol treated syrup appears to be promising in the control of nosema
infection."""""""""

The first study that you linked, I have not had a chance to look over yet, nor have I had a chance to read what Randy had to say about it, but I am betting that he is like you and I, "sitting on the fence, hoping for a solid place to land"... I agree with you that if thymol had indeed been proven so effective in one or two trials, why have there not been more studies run abroad in an effort to find at least another means of treatment to keep from having the industry over using fumigillin with no rotation...


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## crofter (May 5, 2011)

There is a lot of reading in those articles; I am surprised that there is not more condensed material available to the general beekeeping population.

From Randy Oliver's site I get the impression that N. ceranae could be a very widespread and crippling disease in our bees and also going mostly under the radar. Doesn't Nosema Ceranae appear as a very common denominator with CCD?

The first study linked to lists the target as Nosema Apis. I dont know how applicable it may be to Ceranae which reportedly is much more prevalent.

I was surprised by the small sampling size in the methods in the second link; 2 bees per sample!

Results seem so promising that I agree there should be much more news circulating about ongoing studies. In one article I read Fumigillin had a much stronger immediate knock down in effects on bees but thymol did the more thorough long term removal of spores from the hive environment.


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## arcowandbeegirl (Oct 11, 2010)

Thanks everyone for the wonderful information!!


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## wglord (Nov 23, 2009)

I used thymol is syrup last year and this year in North Carolina. When I do alcohol washes on all hives I save the dead bees in a bucket and get a composite sample from each bee yard to send off for Nosema spore counts. I have had Nosema issues on and off for several years but our state lab does not distinguish between species. I am using 50 grams of thymol per 100 gallons of syrup. In 2010 after a summer of thymol use I had spore levels over threshold in one yard out of 7. In 2011 all yards were under threshold but the same yard that tested high last year had some spores present. I can tell which hives have problems by the rate at which they take feed out of a 2 gallon division board feeder and I drench them with Fumidil and HBH. Does thymol help? I think so. Can I prove it? No. It does keep syrup from fermenting in my 300 gallon tank between feedings too. I think it is worth using.


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## Mtn. Bee (Nov 10, 2009)

wglord said:


> I used thymol is syrup last year and this year in North Carolina. When I do alcohol washes on all hives I save the dead bees in a bucket and get a composite sample from each bee yard to send off for Nosema spore counts. I have had Nosema issues on and off for several years but our state lab does not distinguish between species. I am using 50 grams of thymol per 100 gallons of syrup. In 2010 after a summer of thymol use I had spore levels over threshold in one yard out of 7. In 2011 all yards were under threshold but the same yard that tested high last year had some spores present. I can tell which hives have problems by the rate at which they take feed out of a 2 gallon division board feeder and I drench them with Fumidil and HBH. Does thymol help? I think so. Can I prove it? No. It does keep syrup from fermenting in my 300 gallon tank between feedings too. I think it is worth using.




I know this is an older post but I think it should definitely be brought back to life!
I have been searching the forum for an alternative to Fumidil for Nosema control and found this post about using Thymol Crystals mixed into sugar syrup! Also really like the fact that it keeps the sugar syrup from fermenting!


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## johng (Nov 24, 2009)

Yes, lots of interesting reading. Wish Russell would come back to the fourm. He is a wealth of info.


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