# Use of Coconut oil



## Walt McBride (Apr 4, 2004)

Is any one out there using coconut oil on cotton pads above the brood nest to help control varroa mites?
Walt


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## Tom G. Laury (May 24, 2008)

*Varroa Control*

Everything works better with the blue shop towels.


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## HarryVanderpool (Apr 11, 2005)

*Blue towel special*

Right on, Tom!
One of our finest beekeepers sugested that we use blue shop towels for our place mats and napkins at our annual convention banquet!
Too funny!!......


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## LSPender (Nov 16, 2004)

Yes, found this cotton pads hold a lot of oil. we use 2 pads in each hive because I have only been able to find small pads, about 2" x 2". The ones used for make up by the girls. Find at Target, Walmart & 99cent store.

Can not for sure prove results yet, but I know of a large operator that has soley used cocnut oil for 6 months and his mite counts with ether rolls are between 1 & 3 consistanly.


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## Tom G. Laury (May 24, 2008)

*V Control*

I heard it works better with a few drops of nail polish remover.

I am completely serious.


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## BigDaddyDS (Aug 28, 2007)

Oh geez! We used to use nail polish remover in a jar to KILL bees, before mounting them to a piece of styrofoam with a pin, back when I did science fair projects!


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## danno1800 (Mar 13, 2004)

*I've used Coconut Oil instead of Crisco in my grease patties*

Hope that helps - Danno


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## HarryVanderpool (Apr 11, 2005)

*Clueless Treating*



LSPender said:


> Yes, found this cotton pads hold a lot of oil. we use 2 pads in each hive because I have only been able to find small pads, about 2" x 2". The ones used for make up by the girls. Find at Target, Walmart & 99cent store.
> 
> Can not for sure prove results yet, but I know of a large operator that has soley used cocnut oil for 6 months and his mite counts with ether rolls are between 1 & 3 consistanly.


Soooo, your first sentance indicates that you have gone the mile to develop delivery of this treatment.

The second sentance indicates that you are clueless as to the efficacy of said treatment.
Efficacy testing is a simple but CRITICAL step in pest and disease contol.
Do you have time and bees to waste? I don't!
Don't do anything without thoughtful purpose.
For tips on efficacy testing, go to:

www.mitegone.com


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## LSPender (Nov 16, 2004)

Harry, please do not assume what I said. No results can be stated for at min. 1 yr, ie results at next pollination season/overwintering results.

I do not like your use of the word clueless, a lot of thought has gone in to this by many people.

Have a great day


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## Tom G. Laury (May 24, 2008)

*Blue Special*

I really have a hard time believing that something would work better without using the blue shop towels.


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## HarryVanderpool (Apr 11, 2005)

*Blind faith*



LSPender said:


> Harry, please do not assume what I said. No results can be stated for at min. 1 yr, ie results at next pollination season/overwintering results.
> 
> I do not like your use of the word clueless, a lot of thought has gone in to this by many people.
> 
> Have a great day


Sorry about using the "C" word, but if one blindly uses a chemical and then waits around for, "at min. 1 yr, ie results at next pollination season/overwintering results" this is CLUELESS beekeeping!

Efficacy testing gives results in the first 24 hours of treatment.

24 hours after chemical treatment, if a fellow beekeeper asks you how the treatment is working you SHOULD be able to answer, "Tests show that this chemical is X% effective".

Short of this you are treating in the dark.

Have a GREAT day!

(...and next time at least consider the blue towels.)


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## Tom G. Laury (May 24, 2008)

*Don't Forget*

The 2-3 drops of nail polish remover. Actually I've never used it but I heard at the McDonalds in Kerman Calif. that it works really good.


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## LSPender (Nov 16, 2004)

You can have all the mite drop you want, thats not the goal.

The goal is to have good hives overwintered to start the next season.

Yes we have short term results, but no method can be fully tested without going thru a full cycle to find total results, remember the mites are not the only probleme in the hive.


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## rainesridgefarm (Sep 4, 2001)

*second time I heard of this*

So where did this idea come from and what is the form of action to get rid of the mites?


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## LSPender (Nov 16, 2004)

*southpacific*

SouthPacific Island natives uses cocnut oil for skin mites, someone was reading an article about this and had a brilliant idea to try it.


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## HarryVanderpool (Apr 11, 2005)

*Lets rope the dead horse one more time.*



LSPender said:


> You can have all the mite drop you want, thats not the goal.
> 
> The goal is to have good hives overwintered to start the next season.
> 
> Yes we have short term results, but no method can be fully tested without going thru a full cycle to find total results, remember the mites are not the only probleme in the hive.



No, mite drop IS the goal.
You are changing the subject.
If you want to change the subject to sucsessfull overwintering, or preparing honey bee hives for winter then yes; there are many, many issues to consider.
But this thread is about using coconut oil for varroa control.

How well does it work?
There is only one clear way to know and that is through efficacy evaluation.

Playing "wait and see" until spring gives no insight as to the efficacy of the treatment.
There are just too many variables in honeybee health and mortality to base a desicision that way.

Fortunatly however, for those of us that read, there are ways to measure efficacy.

I prefer Bill Ruzika's articles on this:
www.mitegone.com


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## Ravenseye (Apr 2, 2006)

Let's keep this thread specific to the thread topic, "*Use of Coconut oil", *and let's be careful about the overuse of external references that don't directly support the thread topic. Thanks in advance!


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## JBJ (Jan 27, 2005)

*Miksa article*

Any body see the reference to coconut oil on page 554 of this months ABJ?

Perhaps the method could be considered experimental, but that is not to say that it is not worth experimenting... as long as some rigorous scientific method is employed. 

Most material put in the hive would be considered experimental at one point in time including organic acids and pollen sub; because good work was done here, beekeepers have more options.


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## LSPender (Nov 16, 2004)

*reply*

Quote by Harry:
Fortunatly however, for those of us that read, there are ways to measure efficacy.

Harry, Would appreciate to keep to subject and drop the little jibs, I do read, maybe you should go back to one of the basis books,by Dale Carnegie " How to win friends an influence people"

Lest we forget that we as beekeepers are on the same team, the enemies are little bugs known and unknown, that affect the health of our bee hives.


please also note that not everyone has the ability you do to put into words the the things that are tested, may I suggest you do some testing of coconut oil and prove it wrong.

Thanks


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## HarryVanderpool (Apr 11, 2005)

LSPender said:


> Quote by Harry:
> 
> Lest we forget that we as beekeepers are on the same team, the enemies are little bugs known and unknown, that affect the health of our bee hives.
> please also note that not everyone has the ability you do to put into words the the things that are tested, may I suggest you do some testing of coconut oil and prove it wrong.
> ...



It would be really great if all of us beekeepers were on the same team, but we are not.
The vast amount of beekeepers in my team give every effort and support the industry at every opportunity. 
They attend conferences, seminars, regional association meetings, subscribe to perodicals and contribute.
Unfortunatly, there is the other team that annually tosses a "treatment" in the hive and plays the blame-game in spring, happily uninformed as to current best practices. 

>>>may I suggest you do some testing of coconut oil and prove it wrong.<<<

Prove WHAT wrong?? What are you talking about?

Back to Coconut oil:
I responded to this discussion because I would like to know the results from those testing coconut oil. I do not have the time to set here and type instructions for Efficacy testing and will not plagerize other fine people's hard work.
So either one has the interest in gaining skill in evaluating their efforts, or they stumble and bumble on in the land of excuse-izm.

O.K. Maybe I'll set aside a couple of pallets and evaluate coconut oil and spoon-feed the "other team" the results.


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## HarryVanderpool (Apr 11, 2005)

Walt McBride said:


> Is any one out there using coconut oil on cotton pads above the brood nest to help control varroa mites?
> Walt


O.K. so here is the original post by Walt.
It sounds like he wants to know how well coconut oil delivered on cotton pads does at controlling varroa mite levels.

Have you noticed that most advertisements for mite treatments give a percentage of kill?

Now where do you suppose they arrived at those numbers? And how much skill does it take to crunch the numbers?

No matter what the treatment for mites, (with a few variables) you can establish the efficacy of a treatment in the first 24 hours after application if you have a handle on addition, subtraction, multiplication and Division, and have read and understood the simple procedures for testing.

We have a new treatment, Hivastan. Before I would ever consider using a new product such as this, or coconut oil for that matter, I would test it, and also monitor bee mortality and queen issues.


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## Keith Jarrett (Dec 10, 2006)

HarryVanderpool said:


> Sorry about using the "C" word, but if one blindly uses a chemical and then waits around for, "at min. 1 yr, ie results at next pollination season/overwintering results" this is CLUELESS beekeeping!
> 
> Efficacy testing gives results in the first 24 hours of treatment.
> 
> ...


HEy HAY HAY.... I use a patty I my outfit that has one of the ten following products that you guys have listed here. It does not knock the mites off in one day but prehaps it takes 45-60 days for them to eat the patty and at that time low mite levels very low. You guys keep going, I'm going to get some popcorn.


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## HarryVanderpool (Apr 11, 2005)

*Another use for corn.*

Wow Keith !!
You're way ahead of me.
I never thought of using popcorn in place of cotton pads or the blue shop towels.


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## Noelle (Apr 26, 2009)

Keith Jarrett said:


> HEy HAY HAY.... I use a patty I my outfit that has one of the ten following products that you guys have listed here. It does not knock the mites off in one day but prehaps it takes 45-60 days for them to eat the patty and at that time low mite levels very low. You guys keep going, I'm going to get some popcorn.


Do you care to share this secret patty mixture? Or are you keeping it secret:shhhh:


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## tecumseh (Apr 26, 2005)

does coconut oil smell like snake oil?

does the kind of blue shop towels used affect effectiveness?


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## JBJ (Jan 27, 2005)

*Necessity is the mother of all invention... & serendipity the father*

Harry I would be curious to hear your results for efficacy when you do your test. I did not see any data/results type stuff in the ABJ article. It is hard to read what is unpublished, but maybe somebody is willing to collect the data and share the results.

I am not sure why this conversation has gotten so acrimonious. I thought Walt asked a legit question, and LSP reported someone who had low counts on ether roll tests after oil application. Hey, at least they did a follow up test, many... if not most... don't efficacy test even with the "approved" treatments. Many assume that if you follow the instructions on the box it will work, but alas this is not always the case. 

If we play nice perhaps those experimenting with coconut oil may feel inclined to share more results, or they may KDJ it and keep it a trade secret.


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## Keith Jarrett (Dec 10, 2006)

JBJ said:


> or they may KDJ it and keep it a trade secret.


Alright Promiscuous, 

There are about six keepers out there that I know of that are useing/selling. Mann Lake is trying to get the receipe so they can say "if it's new it's from us".

It's kinda like trying to get the queen to lay in foundation.


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## HarryVanderpool (Apr 11, 2005)

I don't have Keith's recipe, but heres' an excerp from an article I found on "you-know-whos" website about it:

>>>" The impressive thing about Keith's popcorn delivery system is the ease of evaluation.
-If you have at least 30 mites for every unpopped kernal on the sticky board, its 99%.
-20 mites for every kernal, 65%.
-Under 10; try re-popping in cocnut oil and retest."<<<

WOW!! Impressive!


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## JBJ (Jan 27, 2005)

Keith Jarrett said:


> Alright Promiscuous,
> It's kinda like trying to get the queen to lay in foundation.


...Ah yet another trade secret that everyone would like to know.


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## Keith Jarrett (Dec 10, 2006)

Yeah..... Including Keith.


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## randy0117so (Nov 8, 2021)

I melt a 30 oz jug of coconut oil and one to two pounds of natural bees wax in a melter as for used to melt bees wax to roll onto your frames. After painting my hives with milk paint or another low VOC bee safe paint and waiting a couple days to allow the paint to soak into my pine wood hives. I roll and brush 3 to 4 coats of the coconut/ bees wax oil onto all outside hive surfaces while keeping the wax/ oil mixture hot and melted and allowing it time to soak into the wood at and between coats( the sun and heat plays a big role in the process)once let sit and allowed to penetrate for a week or so at least into the pine wood.the shiney coat reflects the sun and rain just runs down and off the surfaces of the hives. After 5 years of sitting out in the elements the exterior paint still looks as good as the day I painted them. I wouldnt paint or use it on any inside hive surfaces the same as paint. The bees will naturally take care of the hive insides themselves. Even tho I do still oxacilic acid treat for mites no matter my mite counts after powder sugar shakes for mites. I rarely have even one mite at mite checks. But I also plant thyme in the wood mulch under and around my beehives where they set. And I plant lavender mixed in with the white clover I have on the berms around the pond where my hives are located.thym e and lavender are said to be mite dete rants ( mites dont like them). Could my use of coconut oil/ beeswax mix painte d/ rolled over my painted hive boxes and allowed to penetrate and rain proof my pine made hives be helping to keep my mite counts relatively at a low to non existant count at all times??? 
I dont know,because I'm not a scientis t or chemist or V mite expert. I'm just a simple bee keeper with brains and not afraid to research.think. and to try out something new based on my research and my gut.and NOT WAIT for someon e else to try and to execute my researc h or my hunches for me-- at only there expense and bee colonies. No more than I really " just believe" something that someone writes or tells me. I believ e from experience and hearing, that the old saying is true with merit---" if somet hing sounds to good to be true then it probably is". Most of what a person hears usually cant be relied upon or full y trusted. But,that's how,we all learn from mistakes. Right????


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## elmer_fud (Apr 21, 2018)

FYI, 12 year old thread


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## randy0117so (Nov 8, 2021)

elmer_fud said:


> FYI, 12 year old thread


Yes,I know,it is and was.thanks!!!!


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## Oldtimer (Jul 4, 2010)

Once, after trying to figure out the ingredients of apiguard, I made a mix of coconut oil, white sugar, and thymol crystals.

Put in the hives, worked about as good as apiguard. Which is, got some hives cleared of mites totally, but some other hives, not so much.


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