MAQs after 24 hours

[RosieMc]

After hearing these reports, and others, I will not be using the strips

Wait until next year and see if the product has been withdrawn

 

[VEG]

After hearing these reports, and others, I will not be using the strips

Wait until next year and see if the product has been withdrawn

Why do you think it will be withdrawn?

 

[itma]

... Especially at a fiver or more each treatment. Apiguard or a straight thymol treatment might be a far better option monetary-wise.

Not sure I follow your logic on this occasion.
Raw Thymol is obviously going to be cheaper, but financially should be compared against straight Formic. They are both cheap. No argument on that score.
But the products are providing a safer, more pleasant, controlled and convenient means of applying the active ingredient

Taking T's pricing (without shipping) for a simple comparison
Apiguard £5.26/treatment (based on buying a pack of 10 trays/5 treatments)
MAQS £5.52/treatment (based on buying a pack of 10 treatments)

I honestly don't think that 26 pence per colony treatment represents "a far better option monetary-wise".

What that 26p can buy you is an extra month of production.
Which I think has a greater value than 26p ...

My conclusion, so far, is that MAQS would be better used a bit earlier. There is no need to delay it as late as possible - as with Apiguard.
I haven't seen much in the way of bee losses.
When we get a bad year of mite infestation, using it early, with the supers giving extra volume, should be considered pretty normal.

 

[VEG]

Part of the reason I am going to use it this year is because my bees are on the balsam usually well into october. So I don't get to put apiguard on until the middle of October. That means they don't finish treatment until the middle of November, which does affect the queen laying and reduces the number of winter bees.
So for me a quicker treatment that the bees will get over quicker allowing more winter bees.

 

[VEG]

I cant find out what is the max amount of supers that can be on the hive to treat, is there a max/min?

 

[Tonyatcwfarm]

What do the bees die of

 

[mbc]

What do the bees die of

Excellent question.
Its more than likely the infirm, end of life bees that get overcome by the formic vapor and dont make it out into the field to die like they would usually do unnoticed by the beekeeper.

 

[beebreeder]

There has been a long thread on beel about this, the other problem that the americans are finding and questioning is whether it kills mites in sealed brood. They are finding on going mite loads long after treatment, it must obviously be taken into account the daytime temps vary across the USA but they have had MAQ's for a while now and some are definitely questioning its efficacy.

 

[VEG]

The only sure way to get rid of all the mites is to get rid of the bees


Craig

 

[oliver90owner]

Mbc,

A good guess but equally could be the youngest house bees that cannot get out of the fumes at any time.

You may be right, but nobody seems to have investigated this fairly simple-to-sort fact.

As queenie is known to be lost on occasions, one might ask if it is the older or newer queens which may be more the more susceptible.

All useful data which should be available. When I have used nassenheiders, I have always tended to err on the cautious side and frankly don't have enough experience to say one way or the other.

 

[ianorsven]

Shouldn't this treatment be seen in the context of all the other ways in which varroa infestations may be controlled? There are a variety of ways in which an Integrated Pest Management programme may operate and the use MAQs may be useful in deciding on the best plan depending on the prevailing circumstances each beekeeper is facing.

I have found Apiguard to be good at killing mites (judging from drop counts) but caused my queens to go out of lay for relatively long periods during the treatment. The reason I chose MAQs this year was so that I could leave supers on while I treated and the relatively short time needed (7days). All three of my queens were laying well by day 7. This, hopefully, will ensure plenty of winter bees in good health.

I posted what I experienced, and the more objective observational feedback available on the forum the better.

At the moment I would use MAQs again, but I would not rule out any other treatment.

I can understand a position of "wait and see how others get on" but isn't it too early to say "never"?

 

[Russel]

Has any one done a wash test on the dead bees to check mite levels?
We are running a wash test tomorrow on 6 untreated colonies, then we will decide which treatment to use?

A member has used MAQ's this season will see what his experience has been?

 

[beeno]

Has any one done a wash test on the dead bees to check mite levels?
We are running a wash test tomorrow on 6 untreated colonies, then we will decide which treatment to use?

A member has used MAQ's this season will see what his experience has been?

Hi Russel,
I am using Thymol (Hivemakers recipe) and don't have much of a mite drop, but lots of critters carrying them away no doubt. Don't have many dead bees either for that matter at the moment. Something for the future perhaps. How do you do the wash test?

 

[Swarm]

Shouldn't this treatment be seen in the context of all the other ways in which varroa infestations may be controlled? There are a variety of ways in which an Integrated Pest Management programme may operate and the use MAQs may be useful in deciding on the best plan depending on the prevailing circumstances each beekeeper is facing.

I have found Apiguard to be good at killing mites (judging from drop counts) but caused my queens to go out of lay for relatively long periods during the treatment. The reason I chose MAQs this year was so that I could leave supers on while I treated and the relatively short time needed (7days). All three of my queens were laying well by day 7. This, hopefully, will ensure plenty of winter bees in good health.

I posted what I experienced, and the more objective observational feedback available on the forum the better.

At the moment I would use MAQs again, but I would not rule out any other treatment.

I can understand a position of "wait and see how others get on" but isn't it too early to say "never"?

Very useful feedback.

 

[Russel]

Hi Russel,
I am using Thymol (Hivemakers recipe) and don't have much of a mite drop, but lots of critters carrying them away no doubt. Don't have many dead bees either for that matter at the moment. Something for the future perhaps. How do you do the wash test?

Mite sampling