Bee Gate

[Wandering Man]

I came across this page a while back in search of treatment for varroa mites:

https://beecare.bayer.com/media-center/news/news-detail/a-new-way-of-protecting-bees-against-varroa-mites

I couldn't find the product for sale anywhere.

Does anyone know what happened? Was it a flop? Did it kill the bees? Was it not effective on mites?

Was it an April Fools joke?

[Marion]

It sounds like a good idea since you don't put it on until fall. I will have to research this.

[Perry]

A gate or a strip, what's the difference? Both are a means to distribute a chemical throughout the hive. A rose by any other name.....

[LazyBkpr]

What Perry said. The last time I checked on that, they were struggling a bit with being able to apply the chems through the gate, and STILL allow drones to get out, as well as virgin queens etc to mate, and still get back inside..   As of the last time I read about it, the OAV or other treatments were still the better option.

[Barbarian]

I can vaguely remember the announcement of this possible product.

There was some beekeeper flack about Bayer being the parent company. I think the suggestion was about a PR exercise to mollify the criticism of Bayer's bad press on agrichemicals.

[pistolpete]

You beat me to it: Isn't Bayer one of the largest manufacturers of pesticides?   If you read the article, it carefully deflects blame for CCD squarely on Varroa, when it's been well documented that it'a a combination of Varroa and pesticides, poor forage diversity, and too much hive moving.   The article neglects to mention that CCD came along almost two decades later than the mites.  It's good to have smart people trying to come up with solutions, but this is surely one with alternate agendas.

[riverbee]

looking at this...........it will strip pollen off as the bees are going in.............

let's think about this, some of the entrance reducers made to keep mice out, will strip pollen off the bees as they are going in. (very similiar in construction).