Mite Drop after Oxalic

[Fahey]

I treated my hives with oxalic just before Christmas. and the mite drop so far has only been one or two. Is this a good sign or do they take a bit longer to die. Could they be lying dead in the empty cells waiting to be cleaned out by the bees when brood laying begins.

 

[Dishmop]

I treated my hives with oxalic just before Christmas. and the mite drop so far has only been one or two. Is this a good sign or do they take a bit longer to die. Could they be lying dead in the empty cells waiting to be cleaned out by the bees when brood laying begins.

You might be lucky in that there wasnt many, and therefore hopefully none now.

 

[itma]

What matters more is the drop you see in a few weeks time.
That can give you a lower bound ("at least") for the extent of the continuing problem.

I offer the suggestion that measuring 'what remains' is more important (though much less satisfying) than measuring the deaths during the cull.
I think that this after-treatment-check is normally important with Apiguard/Thymol where the efficacy can be greatly affected by the temperatures during treatment.
My suspicion is that with the mild weather in the run up to Christmas, many hives will have had some (sealed) brood -- and thus the effectiveness of the Oxalic treatment may be less this year than usual.
Best to check - perhaps in a month or so.

Always remember that a low count on the board might not be all the dead mites. Some get blown away, some get eaten ...
The count on the board only means at least that number dead.
It shouldn't exaggerate the problem, but it can under-state it.

 

[oliver90owner]

Your bees may well be one of those 90% that don't actually need oxalic acid trickle treatment in winter in order to easily survive until the summer.

Like most others who make an effective thymol treatment in the autumn. On the other hand, they could be as itma pointed out.

Of course, we don't know if your drop counts are accurate, but there is little else you can do at the present time (ubless another trickle is planned!), so stop worrying. There are other risks for a dead-out yet, but yours seem to be looking good.

 

[Finman]

Your bees may well be one of those 90% that don't actually need oxalic acid trickle treatment in winter in order to easily survive until the summer..

Actually oxalic hits down the rest of mites that they do not propagate themselves over critical line before September. Not until summer but over summer.

Then thymol or formic acid should protect winter bees when they are reared.

mite drop with oxalic is often very small if autumn treatment has been succesfull.


Autumn treatment is seldom so effective as it has been promised. It may be 96% or 70%.

 

[oliver90owner]

that they do not propagate themselves over critical line before September.

Agreed, if done with no brood and there are no other reasons why people get caught out with collapsing colonies in the summer.

So you clearly agree with me that while it may reduce any other mite control needed, it is not necessarily important that oxalic acid treatment is given, provided other treatments as necessary are implemented, as necessary when necessary, and only,of course, if necessary. I can now close my file as case proven. Oxalic is done as much for the convenience of the beekeeper as for the bees.

Certainly seems to me that oxalic trickling may be less necessary than some folks make out. I will continue to treat when necessary and not when not necessary, the emphasis on that word necessary. Comprendez?

Works for me.

 

[ROACHMAN]

Hold on a minute, how do you tell when its necessary. I treated a couple of my hives with oxalic that had almost zero mite drop before treatment so therefore according to you they were treated unecessraly. Mite drop after treatment was over 100 so therefore it was necessary.

 

[Finman]

that they do not propagate themselves
Certainly seems to me that oxalic trickling may be less necessary than some folks make out. e.

It is not necessary. But like our national menthor said yeasteday, now 95% of Finnish keepeepers do that.

Because, the efficacy of thymol and formic acid is not allways 96% as promised.

And as you know, our climate is more harsh than yours. WE must open our hives in zero temp, and bees do not suffer at all. And no one make calculations before trickling. Then the trickling tells how much they got mites. Some mites get 0 and some gives 100, but it clearly tells how necessary it was.

I have done only oxalic trickling annually and it is not effective alone.

-

 

[Ely]

How do you know if it was necessary or not until you see the mite fall? Mites could have multiplied after a seemingly successful Autumn treatment unless it is 100% effective at killing every last mite, which isn't going to happen. Mites can be reintroduced anyway. And it has already been established by many on here that looking at mite fall pre treatment is no indication of infestation.

 

[Finman]

Hold on a minute, how do you tell when its necessary. I treated a couple of my hives with oxalic that had almost zero mite drop before treatment so therefore according to you they were treated unecessraly. Mite drop after treatment was over 100 so therefore it was necessary.

And without treament you cannot know your situation.

.

100 mites alive after winter

in March 200 mites, April 400, May 800, June 1600, July 3000 and after that mite will harvest the brood

 

[Fahey]

As someone said on this forum...if you put bees into a box, it's your responsibility to give them the care they need. So I believe we should treat with thymol, castor sugar, drone brood removal, oxalic etc, regardless of whether there's mites present. There's nothing else we can do at the moment until someone comes up with a way of telling the mite count in a hive. It should be possible to keep the mites under control with good management.