# Evaluation of lemon juice for controlling Varroa



## odfrank (May 13, 2002)

Could someone please translate this to an easily understood conclusion.
I have a truckload of lemons available to me at any given time and this might be my salvation.


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## Merlinspop (Nov 4, 2010)

I boiled it down to this: if you mix full strength lemon juice in equal amounts with 1:1 syrup, and spray this mixture on bees at a rate of 5ml per frame (they sprayed into the gap between frames) and do this 5 times with 6 days between applications, you might knock ~84% of the varroa population down. 

This might only work in Egypt, though. And I might have completely misread it. It's been awhile since I've read geek.


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## criscojohn (Sep 11, 2010)

This isn't a late April Fool's, is it? I'll take a stab at it. I'm feeling scientific today. It looks like they sprayed the frames and bees with lemon juice in various concentrations. From the tables, the 75% concentration worked almost as well as the 100% concentration, and neither harmed the bees any more than the control. Unless I missed it, they didn't compare the lemon juice to "harder" chemicals other than oxalic acid, so there's no frame of reference to compare how effective one is over the other. Sounds like a good idea if it works! However, from what I know of scientific method, the test and results have to be able to be reproduced in other studies. Might be promising if it's for real.


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## odfrank (May 13, 2002)

Let's see here...
Pick the lemons
Juice the lemons
Put the rinds on the compost pile
mix the syrup
Fill the sprayer
Load the truck
Open the hive
Take the hive apart
Spray each box between 20 frames
Put the hive back together
Do all the hives in the apiary
Drive to the next apiary
Ten sites and fifty+ hives shouldn't take all that long....

Yep, got my work cut out for me, AND I finally got a great use for all those lemons!


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## sevenmmm (Mar 5, 2011)

Interesting the difference between a 50% mix and 100% mix is very small. I wonder how long before the resistant mites will overcome this treatment, so, maybe it would be smart to alternate lemon with these as stated in the study:

* "Feeding colonies with coriander's extract reduced the infestation 
of adult workers and pupae, especially in spring (Shoreit and Hussein, 1994). It 
was observed that, decrease of varroa mites number of hive debris after spraying colonies with anise, carnation, coriander, cumin, eucalyptus and lemon grass oils".*


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## Merlinspop (Nov 4, 2010)

I thought it was rather poorly written. There were a few typos, they didn't say what was used to cut the lemon juice to get the less than 100% samples (I assume water), and they didn't even point out that it was sprayed on until several pages in. Also, the type of spray (size of droplets) may also matter, but that's unspecified. 

Still, it's intereting and I'd like to see more research along these lines.


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## BEES4U (Oct 10, 2007)

v/v or volumn to volumn

and
sugar syrup 1:1 which is water to volumn

Five concentrations (10%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%) of lemon juice (v/v) with sugar syrup 1:1 (w/v) were applied against varroa mites on adult workers honeybee.
Regards,
Ernie


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## Merlinspop (Nov 4, 2010)

Okay, I guess I read that part wrong. At least it wouldn't take a lot of the mixture. Ten two-box hives would take a liter.


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## Ted Kretschmann (Feb 2, 2011)

I am going to pick at OdFrank---Pick the lemons, juice the lemons, throw rinds on compost pile, breed small hive beetles, the little black bug will reproduce in rotten citrus.....TK


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## odfrank (May 13, 2002)

Ted Kretschmann said:


> I am going to pick at OdFrank---Pick the lemons, juice the lemons, throw rinds on compost pile, breed small hive beetles, the little black bug will reproduce in rotten citrus.....TK


Good to know, I better go cleanup all my dropped lemons. The ones I don't use for varroa control.


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## HONEYDEW (Mar 9, 2007)

while were at time consuming mite treatments has anyone considered a magnifying glass and tweezers :lookout:


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## deejaycee (Apr 30, 2008)

HONEYDEW said:


> while were at time consuming mite treatments has anyone considered a magnifying glass and tweezers :lookout:


tsk tsk.. far too invasive having to open the hive for that!

I vote for laporoscopic surgery gear - the camera/light/tweezers on the end of a flexible guidable cable, like they use for keyhole surgery. Slide that baby on in the hive entrance, wouldn't even need to open the hive. 

As far as the lemon juice goes, it's just another organic acid after all - citric acid, rather than formic or oxalic. From memory (read the paper a few months ago), less effective than formic or oxalic, but I don't remember whether there were any particular advantages - whether the citric was 'softer' than the other options in other respects.


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## Rex Piscator (Oct 12, 2010)

Thanks about the note on rotten citrus! By law, all Californians must have a citrus tree in their yard...LOL. I do clean up the dropped fruit, excepting for the plums and apricots...which are quite mushy by the time they drop.


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## pturley (Oct 4, 2010)

So that rather than screwing around juicing lemons, why don't you just use food grade citric acid?

http://www.mothernature.com/p/-Citr...uct&zmam=1000941&zmas=18&zmac=110&zmap=119401

Sincerely,
Paul E. Turley


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