# Does anybody use wintergreen oil in their beekeeping practices



## Vance G (Jan 6, 2011)

I have used wintergreen oil in a recipe I got from fatbeeman on one of his podcasts on somdbeeper.com but the recipe calls for a number of drops and you have gallons so be careful! Understand that the oil will float on top of sugar syrup and kill the bees who come in contact with it. You need to use it as prescribed and it has to be emulsified so it mixes thruout the syrup you deliver it with. I not knowing the source, purity and concentration of the wintergreen would be more apt to spring for and eight dollar ounce of a known bottle of the oil that will last me for a long time. The oil is just not that expensive and bees are very expensive. Be careful. It is a first rate disinfectant for cleaning things though, but it will be strong minty fresh!


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## Rusty67 (Mar 9, 2010)

Some beekeepers, myself included, use wintergreen grease patties. It is supposed to help control mites in the winter. Some research has shown that low levels of wintergreen oil interfere with the breeding cycle of mites. I have no proof of this, but I do it and I've never lost a hive to mites. It is most effective at keeping already low mite levels from rapidly increasing. It will definitely not knock out a high population to start with. So the idea is to treat for mites in fall and then use wintergreen patties to slow their build up. I wrote a post about these patties once, if you are interested in how to make them: http://www.honeybeesuite.com/grease-patties-help-control-winter-mites/


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## hemichuck (Oct 27, 2009)

Thanks guys, A buddy of mine makes his own honeybee healthy and he said he uses about 14 drops per gallon and yes I do know you have to use an emulsifier to blend it all. This wintergreen oil is clinical grade, I know the source, grade and purity of it but so far I have located about 14 gallons and I doubt I will ever have enough bees to utilize all of it. Does anybody know what kind of shelf life this stuff has? I also found a gallon of Thymol among other things.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

>I was just digging through some old stuff and found several gallons of Wintergreen oil. I know this is one of the ingredients in Honey bee healthy 

Actually that would be peppermint oil...

>and have heard of a couple of other instances where people used it.

Yes, I have used it.

> Anybody have any specifics? 

It seemed to help with mites, but my concern was it's effect on the pheromones in the hive and it killing the beneficial microbes in the hive. I stopped using it. I'd guess that was about 2003 that I stopped.


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## Rusty67 (Mar 9, 2010)

Actually, Honey-B-Healthy contains neither peppermint oil nor wintergreen oil. It contains spearmint oil and lemongrass oil. It's on the label.


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## hemichuck (Oct 27, 2009)

Well then I guess I cant use this stuff for anything benefical. I have lots of it so if anybody has any ideas on where to get rid of it please let me know. I was digging through some old stuff in the warehouse and found a lot of things like Talc,camphor,creosote,acetic acid,barium sulfate,etc... none of which could be used for its intended purpose any more. Last year I was able to donate a bunch of it to a couple of schools and a couple of other agencies. There was an old guy that used to come by and dig through(a retired chemist)and he was great at directing stuff to people who could use it, but he moved off to Louisiana or Mississippi or someplace.Thanks for the input guys.


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## SpeckledPup (May 25, 2011)

Hemichuck,

Why not offer it in the for sale section.

I know if the price is right I would be interested in a gallon or 2 for uses other then my bees.

I do have 1 recipe that I've collected but not tried yet for grease patties that uses wintergreen oil.


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## hemichuck (Oct 27, 2009)

I was planning on doing that at some point but I need to look at what it takes to ship it and whether or not I need to break down into smaller containers to avoid hazardous charges (its actually listed as a poisen on MSDS sheets even though it is used for a variety of purposes. Here is what wickipedia has about it
Methyl salicylate is used as a rubefacient in deep heating liniments (such as Bengay ointment), and in small amounts as a flavoring agent at no more than 0.04%.[3] It is also used to provide fragrance to various products and as an odor-masking agent for some organophosphate pesticides. If applied in too high quantities it can cause stomach and kidney problems.[4]

Methyl salicylate is among the compounds that attract male orchid bees, who apparently gather the chemical to synthesize pheromones; it is commonly used as bait to attract and collect these bees for study.[5]

Methyl salicylate has the ability to clear plant or animal tissue samples of color, and as such is useful for microscopy and immunohistochemistry when excess pigments obscure structures or block light in the tissue being examined. This clearing generally only takes a few minutes, but the tissue must first be dehydrated in alcohol.[citation needed]

Methyl salicylate, though its source plants are not true mints, is used as a mint in some kinds of chewing gum and candy, as an alternative to the more common peppermint and spearmint oils. It can also be found as a flavoring of root beer. It is also a potentially entertaining source of triboluminescence; when mixed with sugar and dried, it gains the tendency to build up electrical charge when crushed or rubbed. This effect can be observed by crushing wintergreen Life Savers candy in a dark room.[6][7]

Methyl salicylate can be used as a transfer agent, to produce a manual copy of an image on a surface.[8]

Methyl salicylate is added in small amounts to glacial acetic acid to lower its freezing point for transport in cold countries.

Methyl salicylate is used as a simulant or surrogate for the research of chemical warfare agent sulfur mustard, due to its similar chemical and physical properties.[9]

Methyl salicylate is one of several antiseptic ingredients in Listerine mouthwash produced by the Johnson & Johnson company. It is also used in the "Dencorub Extra Strength" heat cream, which is used to treat joint and muscular pain and is a product of the Dencorub company.

Sorry, I didnt mean to write a novel but this is just a small part of their description. I will let you know what I decide to do with it. Thanks


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## homesteader824 (Jun 9, 2012)

I know I'm 5 years late, but I was searching to verify something I just read: "Every man scrambled into his veil, and anointed his hands with the oil of wintergreen—the one abiding terror of vindictive bees. And then the real business of the day commenced." “The Bee-Hunters” p.54, The Bee-Master of Warrilow, Tickner Edwardes (1907)

This is a story of the old bee-hunters who destroyed feral hives to get honey. Apparently they used wintergreen oil as a bee repellent, before smoking the bees out and cutting up the tree. I was just wondering if wintergreen oil would keep bees off your hands while working a hive?


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## Original Cookie (Aug 23, 2015)

Around here in Maine they use wintergreen alcohol on their hands before working bees


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## BadBeeKeeper (Jan 24, 2015)

Original Cookie said:


> Around here in Maine they use wintergreen alcohol on their hands before working bees


Who is "they"? First I've heard of it...interesting, but I think I'd rather put on gloves.


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## Gord (Feb 8, 2011)

I use wintergreen in grease patties, and two drops per ounce when I fog with FGMO.


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## Oldtimer (Jul 4, 2010)

It reduces queen loss if doing a flash formic acid treatment, by adding 1/2 of a drop of wintergreen oil to the pad.


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## loggermike (Jul 23, 2000)

How do you get 'half a drop'? Is that a New Zealand measurement?

But sounds like a good idea. I have a gallon thats been laying around since we gave up using it in grease patties for tracheal mites.


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## Oldtimer (Jul 4, 2010)

Good question loggermike, I dispensed it with a dripper and did my best to wipe off 1/2 a drop on each pad but suspect accuracy was not the greatest.

What actually happened at that time I was doing 24 hour flash treatments of 100 mls of 50% formic acid, that's quite a bit and had quite an effect on the hive including often killing a cup or two of brood that was dumped outside the hive afterwards, but i considered that worth it to know it was penetrating brood cells and killing mites. The downside, a strong dose like that confused and aggravated the bees you could sometimes see bees fighting, and queens were lost at an unacceptably high rate. After some research I started adding wintergreen and it had a noticeable calming effect on the hives, and drastically reduced queen loss.


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## Hops Brewster (Jun 17, 2014)

Use it to go into the chewing gum business??
:lookout:


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