Apivar not working?

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Joined
Nov 9, 2018
Messages
705
Reaction score
556
Location
Rainham, Medway (North Kent) UK
Hive Type
National
Number of Hives
24 plus 12 owned by others
It's coming up to 7 weeks since I put Apivar strips on a hive. The daily mite drops for the last few days have been above 20. Obviously, I can leave the strips on for another week or two. But if the job hasn't been done by now, something seems to be wrong. Any suggestions about what to do? I have just received a new Gas-Vap and was expecting to use it for the first time in early December. Just mentioning...
 
It's coming up to 7 weeks since I put Apivar strips on a hive. The daily mite drops for the last few days have been above 20. Obviously, I can leave the strips on for another week or two. But if the job hasn't been done by now, something seems to be wrong. Any suggestions about what to do? I have just received a new Gas-Vap and was expecting to use it for the first time in early December. Just mentioning...
Hi, I was wondering where you put the apivar strips and how many? Ie how close to the cluster of bee's.
How many boxes are the colony in?

I also reposition the strips(if the cluster has moved) and scrap of any propolis half way through treatment.
You can leave the strips in for 10 weeks.
 
It's coming up to 7 weeks since I put Apivar strips on a hive. The daily mite drops for the last few days have been above 20. Obviously, I can leave the strips on for another week or two. But if the job hasn't been done by now, something seems to be wrong. Any suggestions about what to do? I have just received a new Gas-Vap and was expecting to use it for the first time in early December. Just mentioning...
You can use the gas vap any time .. you just need to be aware that it won't catch any mites that are in the capped brood cells so you need to do it every five days for at least three cycles ..that should get all the mites behind the cappings.
 
Hi, I was wondering where you put the apivar strips and how many? Ie how close to the cluster of bee's.
How many boxes are the colony in?

I also reposition the strips(if the cluster has moved) and scrap of any propolis half way through treatment.
You can leave the strips in for 10 weeks.
I've followed the instructions about positioning and have scraped the surfaces of the strips. Colony in one 12x14.
 
You can use the gas vap any time .. you just need to be aware that it won't catch any mites that are in the capped brood cells so you need to do it every five days for at least three cycles ..that should get all the mites behind the cappings.
Any time? I was almost afraid to mention gas-vaping while Apivar was still in place... Seems reckless somehow.
 
There's a few beekeepers reporting resistance to amitraz, the active ingredient of apivar, hivemaker on here mentioned it on Twitter.
 
Any time? I was almost afraid to mention gas-vaping while Apivar was still in place... Seems reckless somehow.
Well ... I rather assumed that what was required was either or ... not as well as ! You have to assume some level of common sense don't you ?
 

An interesting read.

A point that is not mentioned is the fact that when an organism develops resistance to a particular substance, it sometimes comes at a detrimental cost in some other way.

An analogy is a soldier wearing a mask to resist chemical attack. This will be detrimental to the soldier. As you add more kit to resist chemical attack, it becomes even more detrimental.

In terms of organisms, sometimes they will need to develop thicker shells, so may take longer to mature, their life spans or fecundity may be reduced.

If the resistant mites did have to impaire some attribute to obtain their resistance, that could explain why in the study, the resistant mites did not appear to have compleatly dominated the population in any of the apiarys.

If the resistante mites are in some way considerably impaired, than it is unlikely the resistance will spread to untreated apiaries. And will possibly disappear if treatment is stopped.
 
The op hasn't clarified what the mite drop was in the first weeks of treatment.
How can we assume that the treatment hasn't worked or that this colony have built up a resistance to apivar??
Just a thought.
 
It's coming up to 7 weeks since I put Apivar strips on a hive. The daily mite drops for the last few days have been above 20. Obviously, I can leave the strips on for another week or two. But if the job hasn't been done by now, something seems to be wrong. Any suggestions about what to do? I have just received a new Gas-Vap and was expecting to use it for the first time in early December. Just mentioning...
I wouldn’t panic. If this is only one hive it may be the case that it has robbed an infected colony or bees from a collapsing colony elsewhere have entered your hive. Suggest stick to the original plan & follow the manufacturer instructions ie keep in for 10 weeks, then remove. Then vap on the first mild day after a prolonged (c7-10day) cold snap in Nov / Dec.
Can be other explanations (as above) so wouldn’t take notice of anecdotal reports. Needs to be properly scientifically proven.
 
I wouldn’t panic. If this is only one hive it may be the case that it has robbed an infected colony or bees from a collapsing colony elsewhere have entered your hive. Suggest stick to the original plan & follow the manufacturer instructions ie keep in for 10 weeks, then remove. Then vap on the first mild day after a prolonged (c7-10day) cold snap in Nov / Dec.
Can be other explanations (as above) so wouldn’t take notice of anecdotal reports. Needs to be properly scientifically proven.
Thanks. Seems like a plan.
 
The op hasn't clarified what the mite drop was in the first weeks of treatment.
How can we assume that the treatment hasn't worked or that this colony have built up a resistance to apivar??
Just a thought.
You're absolutely right. Because I didn't check dmd before treatment, I can't know what's really going on. I have found that dmd checks before treating in winter are unreliable, but that isn't the case when the bees are active.
 
It would be good if I knew that! Sadly I didn't count daily mite drops till after 6 weeks of Apivar. Lost opportunity to learn something.
You will know for next time.;)
Did you treat because you thought they needed treatment?
Maybe do a sugar roll or the like next time as a way of assessing IF they need treating, and make sure you check your inspection board.

Have a look at this link it will give you some goodish advice on varroa treatments etc.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...FjAAegQIAhAB&usg=AOvVaw3WRIz2IgXSXN8yzC4j9vJH
 
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