December Varroa

[bjosephd]

What sort of varroa drop should I expect/tolerate at this time of year?

Put the removable screen in the other day and am seeing far more varroa than I did earlier in the season. Or is this normal?

Is there anything I should potentially be doing right now to combat this.

I have to confess I did no autumn treatment as hive went queen less and so was late to get itself sorted with a mated queen and I felt by then they needed as much opportunity to get their numbers up for winter, and didn't want to risk queen going off lay due to treatments. Maybe wrong choice... but it's the choice I made.

Thanks

 

[Thymallus]

What sort of varroa drop should I expect/tolerate at this time of year?

Ideally non. ....looks like a job for VapeMan our latest superhero.

 

[Swarm]

Are you still counting mites?

 

[Thymallus]

Are you still counting mites?

Only when I clean the drop boards on my non solid floor hives. Which just happened to be today. Not a mite in sight, and they have been left for nearly three weeks since last clean.

 

[bjosephd]

Vape my only option?

 

[Hivemaker.]

Vape my only option?

No, you could also trickle oxalic acid over them.

 

[charlievictorbravo]

What sort of varroa drop should I expect/tolerate at this time of year?

Put the removable screen in the other day and am seeing far more varroa than I did earlier in the season. Or is this normal?

Is there anything I should potentially be doing right now to combat this.

I have to confess I did no autumn treatment as hive went queen less and so was late to get itself sorted with a mated queen and I felt by then they needed as much opportunity to get their numbers up for winter, and didn't want to risk queen going off lay due to treatments. Maybe wrong choice... but it's the choice I made.

Thanks

The FERA booklet Managing Varroa has a guide for intervention levels on natural mite drop in Table 5 (page 34). According to this, at this time of year, anything over an average daily natural mite drop of 8 means there's a severe risk and effective controls are required - their words, not mine.

I'm not a very experienced beekeeper but my background in civil engineering always leads to "establish the facts" when confronted with a problem. I'd be inclined to find out the average daily natural mite drop over a period of, say, 7 days. Having established the facts, you can make an informed decision and for what it's worth, if it needs treatment, vaped Oxalic Acid is probably your best bet.

CVB

 

[beeno]

Hi Bjosephd,
I have one of those colonies with unacceptable mite drop despite treating at the beginning of Sept. I checked on the hive yesterday as it had been a nice warm day. Most of the brood had emerged (five frames initially) with 50-100 cells in the process of emerging, but she was still laying so I decided that what I saw is as good as it gets. So, I treated with OA trickle. Just for you I have checked the mite drop - 525. So, since Thymol end October this colony has now dropped 2,000. Us southerners will not be broodless by Christmas at this rate!

 

[bjosephd]

Thanks everybody.

Yes, the weather seems to not want to chill down and give a decent break in laying/brood to slow down those little pesky buggers.

I like the idea of an oxalic sublimator/vaporiser rather than the trickling, especially as they are unlikely to be in a clustering with such mild weather and so not easy to target! But vaporiser is £££!

But that might be the quickest cheapest option.

Are there any other options? Other treatments... strips of some sort for example. (although I think the seater needs to be warmer for them?)

I'll get a count in a more strict manner... but think I'm looking at about 15-20 a day.

 

[bjosephd]

Maqs?

Or too hardcore.

I hear they're pretty brutal.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I like the idea of an oxalic sublimator/vaporiser rather than the trickling, especially as they are unlikely to be in a clustering with such mild weather and so not easy to target! But vaporiser is £££!

But you'll quickly make that money back in what you save on the other treatments - and you are then free to vape whenever youe see it necessary.

I'll say one thing though - I think these varroa calculators aren't worth a fig - just look at the tray: if theres a massive pile of mites there, treat, if there's just a few don't panic - counting individual mites then using the ready reckoner is a waste of time IMHO

 

[pargyle]

It's a no-brainer - the only two treatments sensibly available to you now are MAQS (and even that really needs a constant temperature) - and at £50+ a bucket is more expensive than the cheap £49 OA Sublimator on ebay or OA Tricking - which works but in my book ~ and a few others ~ is not the kindest treatment you can throw at your bees.

I really think the relatively modest investment for making/buying a sublimator is one you will never regret ... OA crystals are so cheap at about £9 a kilo and a 1Kg pack (at 2.5g per treatment) is going to give you 400 treatments ... even allowing a little for wastage it works out at less than 5p a treatment.

As I said .. no brainer - you will save the cost of the kit in the first season.

 

[Millet]

I hear comments saying why are you still checking for Varroa, i hear it all the time when it get's mentioned at this time of the year.

I'm now glad i went against the holy grail of beekeepers and inspected for Varroa a couple of weeks ago, in spite of my 4wk Autumn Thymol treatment i still had a large mite drop a couple of week's back so i vaporized them, the following week i checked the board and it had hundred's of varroa on it, i know they may have died from the previous gassing but the following week i had hundred's again, so i gassed them again and 3day's ago i had around 500 dead varroa on my inspection board, i pulled it out and put a fresh inspection board in and after 2day's they was 15 varroa, i will check again next week and take appropriate action.

What would have happened to this (my first colony) if i stopped inspecting for Varroa several week's back. ? .

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

What would have happened to this (my first colony) if i stopped inspecting for Varroa several week's back. ? .

In all probability - they would have survived

 

[Swarm]

The comments about mite counts at this time of year merely suggest that maybe the beekeeper got it wrong during Autumn treatment. No holy grail, just the norm.

 

[Millet]

In all probability - they would have survived

A bit of Russian Roulette me thinks,

 

[charlievictorbravo]

Thanks everybody.

Yes, the weather seems to not want to chill down and give a decent break in laying/brood to slow down those little pesky buggers.

I like the idea of an oxalic sublimator/vaporiser rather than the trickling, especially as they are unlikely to be in a clustering with such mild weather and so not easy to target! But vaporiser is £££!

But that might be the quickest cheapest option.

Are there any other options? Other treatments... strips of some sort for example. (although I think the seater needs to be warmer for them?)

I'll get a count in a more strict manner... but think I'm looking at about 15-20 a day.

They may have survived. 15 - 20 per day is bad but not horrendous.

Ask at your local association if anybody has a vaporiser you could borrow for some treatments or start saving up for your own bit of kit.

On another point, one thing I don't understand about a lot of the treatments is the recommended temperature for their use. Surely it's the temperature INSIDE the hive that's important, not what's outside. In a properly insulated enclosure, all of the recommended temperatures should be easily achievable - shouldn't they?

CVB

 

[Dusty Rhodes]

the only two treatments sensibly available to you now are MAQS ......and ......a Sublimator on ebay or OA Tricking.

Sorry but this is wrong.

Apistan is an all-year treatment.
Quote: "In the case of severe infestations Apistan can be used at any time of year."
It's certainly the treatment of choice of our RBI at this time of year.

It's relatively cheap, quick and easy to apply and effective.

Dusty

 

[Hivemaker.]

Apistan is an all-year treatment.

Except that here most mites laugh their socks off at it and play ring a ring a roses around the strips while coming to no harm whatsoever.

Apivar (Amitraz) on the other hand works well.

 

[Millet]

They may have survived. 15 - 20 per day is bad but not horrendous.

Ask at your local association if anybody has a vaporiser you could borrow for some treatments or start saving up for your own bit of kit.

On another point, one thing I don't understand about a lot of the treatments is the recommended temperature for their use. Surely it's the temperature INSIDE the hive that's important, not what's outside. In a properly insulated enclosure, all of the recommended temperatures should be easily achievable - shouldn't they?

CVB

I mentioned the same a while back and the replies made no sense.
Maybe you will get more sense, (hopefully) .