# Mite Solution Herbal Jelly



## Joel (Mar 3, 2005)

Do a search, it's here.


----------



## Laurence Hope (Aug 24, 2005)

I did, but I'll try again. Thanks


----------



## Laurence Hope (Aug 24, 2005)

Still can't find any???


----------



## Bob Harrison (Mar 15, 2005)

Tuttle labs got busted and fined! I have already deleted the post about the bust and fine which was on BEE-L a couple days ago.
You can find the post (by Medhat N.) at the BEE-L web site with fine amounts. I doubt you will seeing Tuttle products for sale.


----------



## Joel (Mar 3, 2005)

Thanks Rob, Sorry Laurence, I did not realize the post I read was on Bee-L not beesource.


----------



## Chef Isaac (Jul 26, 2004)

STOPPPPPP DO NOT BUY IT....


it does not work at all!!!! He is a fraud. This guy lives 10 miles away from where I grew up. He just got hit with a big fine because his stuff was not registered with the EPA. His name is steve tuttle. I and another guy did a test with his stuff last year on 100 of his hives and it did not work. The man I worked with said that he used to be friends with Steve. He mentioned that no one knows what is in his formula and that he changes it each year.

It is a waste of money.. please do not buy it!


----------



## Bob Harrison (Mar 15, 2005)

Chef Isaac raises an important issue. No one knows what was used in the concoction. 

A Missouri beekeeper was promoting the stuff at a Missouri Beekeepers meeting a few years ago. Gave us no test information only to take his and Tuttles word the stuff was the miracle cure for varroa. 

Neal Bergman (8000 hives Missouri bootheel) asked me my thoughts? I said:
" If I do not know what is in the concoction I have no opinion" .

Over 100 chemicals have been shown to drop some varroa according to "The Varroa Handbook". 

So I kept quiet and gave Tuttle the benefit of the doubt. Almost two years later the beekeepers using Tuttles formula lost 90% of their hives.

I was asked by a bee lab to test a new varroa product a few years ago . The lab would not tell me what the product was! 

I was to do drop tests (buying the test boards myself) and *not read* (yea right!) but send to the lab (paying the shipping).

The lab was to give me Apistan (to clear the hives of varroa after testing if needed) which I said was worthless in my area in Missouri. The lab said they were sorry but the final treatment had to be Apistan!

I declined to be a part of the research in a nice manner explaining I do not put a treatment on my bees I do not know what is! 

I do not mind buying the test sticky boards and paying the shipping in the interest of research but what part of apistan is useless as a varroa control in my area do you not understand!

I also said I was done with chemicals like Apistan! The lab asked why?


----------



## Joel (Mar 3, 2005)

I used mite solution back when we first had Varroa problems here in 1995/96 time period. It appeared to be mostly vaseline and was supposed to have some secret ingredient. Then it just came in a very simple packet little bag that had a cheap address type label on it. I bought it at Drapers Super Bee in Millerton. They claimed it was not widely sold and worked well. You spread it on a piece of cardboard and put it on the bottom board and the bees were supposed to roll in it making them slippery. ( I'm downright embarrsed as I read this to think I fell for it). It was $9.00/oz. I used it religiously and that fall we had our 1st. major loss from varroa. In August we had literally thousands of bees on the ground with deformed wings and the hives just collapsed, about the time as the Golden Rod flow. It was a lesson I will not soon forget!


----------



## dickm (May 19, 2002)

I've never used the stuff but a queen breeder with a hundred hives told me that was all he used for years. This is the same stuff, I believe but he called it bee-calmer. I think it is composed of essential oils. 

Dickm


----------



## Joel (Mar 3, 2005)

I've never seen it sold as anything other than mite solution. No essential oils in the early version that I'm aware of. He must have been a glutton for punishment if he used it for years because IMO and from everything I've read the stuff is absoulute snake oil!


----------



## Jim Fischer (Jan 5, 2001)

I don't like the character assassination here.
No one would sell something they thought to
be "snake oil", and to accuse someone of being
a "fraud" is pretty harsh.

Given then wide range of things said to work
by various members of this board, and the
contrast between claims made here and controlled
studies of these substances/tactics/methods,
I think that Tuttle should not be singled out
for any sort of poor treatment.

I am confident that Mr. Tuttle, and some number
of other beekeepers believe that the product
works.

The whole EPA thing was a cynical and deliberate
attempt by Jack Thomas of Mann Lake to get Tuttle
"in trouble", for reasons unknown. Tactics of
this sort have been "typical" for Jack. You can
read about the case and (minimal) fine imposed
here: http://www.epa.gov/oalj/orders/tuttle.htm

If it was such a failure in controlling varroa,
why would someone offering competing treatments
well-known to be useful go to the trouble to goad
the EPA into a very rare "enforcement" action?


----------



## Chef Isaac (Jul 26, 2004)

Jim:

This is true however, when you keep changing your forumla every year to offest the change of anyone trying to find out what is in it, that is not right at all... and you know that. I challange you.. call Steve Tutle and ask him what is in his forumla. He will not tell you... at all. This to me is a fraud. When you cant tell me the active ingredient in a forumla, than you have no right to sell it. He has no proof that this owrks at all. Actually, he asked local beekeepers where he lives to try it out and test their hives after a period of time and so they did and it was actually proven at a local level that it doesnt work.

If you want to buy it.... go ahead. But I am telling you as a local that lives in the same area as Steve Tuttle and know all of the beekeepers who live in the same area and they say it doesnt work from a test HE did... than go ahead. 

It does not work. It is a waste of money and Mr. Tuttle, in my opinion is a fraud. Not by EPa standereds but by the fact that his tests prove that it does not work and that he will NOT tell you the active ingredient in the forumla and that he changes it every year!


----------



## Sundance (Sep 9, 2004)

Not defending Tuttle here. But there are many, many, proprietary products for which the creator will not tell you the formula. 

BeeQuick is one that comes to mind. An effective, useful super clearing compound. Yet if you called Mr. Fischer I doubt that he would share the formula.


----------



## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

>http://www.epa.gov/oalj/orders/tuttle.htm

"and is comprised of 95% petroleum jelly and 5% melaleuca alternafolia, or tea tree oil"

Sounds like that's your forumla.


----------



## Joel (Mar 3, 2005)

Are you kidding Jim, many people sell snake oil if there is a quick buck in it for them. Every facet of every growing trend has folks jump in to make a quick buck. Of course I never stated I thought Tuttle labs intended to sell snake oil, where is that in my post? Fraud, I never said fraud. I just said IMO from personal experiance, combined with every post I've read on the stuff that it was snake oil. 95% petroleum Jelly, 5% tea oil, tea oil for god sake, $9.00/oz. I guess I missed the study that showed 5% percent of an ounce of tea oil killed mites or the one that showed vasoline did. I'd like to send him the bill for my study!! What else would you call it? If Tuttle labs has something other than there own anecdotal claims showing the stuff was tested I'd be happy to read it and print a retraction. If not, they new darn well what they were selling.

As far as Jack goes maybe he doesn't like seeing people get ripped off.


----------



## Joseph Clemens (Feb 12, 2005)

"Tea Tree Oil" not "Tea Oil"


----------



## Joel (Mar 3, 2005)

Well that makes all the difference!


----------

