mite treatment

[Mikeb123]

Does this sound about right for autumn/winter/spring mite treatments..
• Mid August apiguard
• Christmas time oxalic acid
• Mid March oxalic acid

Thanks

 

[derekm]

Does this sound about right for autumn/winter/spring mite treatments..
• Mid August apiguard
• Christmas time oxalic acid
• Mid March oxalic acid

Thanks

I prefer this instead :


Cheers
Derek

 

[Tom Bick]

No need for the March oxalic

Personally I prefer not to use oxalic and rely on just thymol but you do have to apply it correct as so many don’t

 

[Mikeb123]

can apiguard be used for all year round, I thought it had to be applied above 15degrees...?

 

[itma]

can apiguard be used for all year round, I thought it had to be applied above 15degrees...?

- Apiguard needs warmth to work.

- It smells strongly of Thymol - which 'taints' any honey on the hive.

These factors limit the time you might use it.




You should not treat by the calendar. You need an idea of the level of the problem before doing something appropriate.

It sounds to me as though it would be useful for you to download and study the booklet "Managing Varroa" from Beebase. Its free and quite educational.

 

[Sean.]

I'm becoming a MAQs convert. I like it's easy to use, and out of 3 hives treated so far all are ok.

 

[sandysman]

Does this sound about right for autumn/winter/spring mite treatments..
• Mid August apiguard
• Christmas time oxalic acid
• Mid March oxalic acid

Thanks

I would add. Check first if you need to do anything! Don't treat just for the sake of it you need to know what your mite drop is before you decide whether you need to treat or not. If you haven't already got it download the DEFRA booklet on varroa.
Andy

 

[Skyhook]

Does this sound about right for autumn/winter/spring mite treatments..
• Mid August apiguard
• Christmas time oxalic acid
• Mid March oxalic acid

Thanks

I expect to still have supers on in August- apiguard (or equivalent thymol treatment) will go on when the super come off, more likely September.

I expect to OA, but the timing will depend on the weather. It wants to be just after the coldest snap, which is often a bit later- unless you are going to use the method mentioned on another thread, and go through the hive destroying capped brood before treatment.

OA in mid-march I would not recommend. If your winter treatment was successful there should be very few mites at this stage. If you had a problem treating and you have got mites, then OA is not suitable as you should have brood at this time. Thymol may be possible if it is warm enough; or MAQS, with the added benefit that you reduce the risk of tainting honey, if stores get moved up later.


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[Finman]

.
To keep drone zone and cutting them off is easy job.

You may brake drone brood pieces, and if you do not see mites, things are good.
If you see tens them, be carefull in treatment in late summer.

 

[mbc]

I think the most important treatment is the autumn one to give your bees a "clean" batch of new bees before the winter.
My best performing colonies this season didnt get an oxalic treatment but seemed to have a bit of a varroa load in the spring so they had a thymol treatment before any supers went on. Although this does set the spring build up back a bit it suited this season just fine as they had a near zero load during the build up and were flying by the first week in July when the flow turned on in spectacular fashion and they made hay, averaging over 100 lb of honey each in the following three weeks of good weather.

 

[Swarm]

I'm becoming a MAQs convert. I like it's easy to use, and out of 3 hives treated so far all are ok.

Nice to hear some first hand, positive feed back.

 

[Mikeb123]

I expect to still have supers on in August- apiguard (or equivalent thymol treatment) will go on when the super come off, more likely September.

I expect to OA, but the timing will depend on the weather. It wants to be just after the coldest snap, which is often a bit later- unless you are going to use the method mentioned on another thread, and go through the hive destroying capped brood before treatment.

OA in mid-march I would not recommend. If your winter treatment was successful there should be very few mites at this stage. If you had a problem treating and you have got mites, then OA is not suitable as you should have brood at this time. Thymol may be possible if it is warm enough; or MAQS, with the added benefit that you reduce the risk of tainting honey, if stores get moved up later.


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Thanks peps for some sound advice skyhook a great description for me as a new beekeeper

 

[drstitson]

home-made thymol treatment AFTER harvest (ie sept).
Oxalic between xmas and new year.

drone brood culling etc during mid season.

 

[Finman]

I'm becoming a MAQs convert. I like it's easy to use, and out of 3 hives treated so far all are ok.

Note that is does not affect under cappings. It needs 3 weeks treatment, but then you things are good for autumn. Timing is good before bees start to make winter brood.

 

[breezybee]

Hi Sean
I am just about to treat with MAQs. Any idea how often it can be applied on each hive?

 

[itma]

I'm becoming a MAQs convert. I like it's easy to use, and out of 3 hives treated so far all are ok.

Note that is does not affect under cappings. It needs 3 weeks treatment, but then you things are good for autumn. Timing is good before bees start to make winter brood.

Finman, sometimes I think you are just deliberately contrary.

This post of yours is simply rubbish. Utter b*ll*cks.

Formic Acid is the only treatment that DOES "affect under cappings" (MAQS is Formic Acid) - and MAQS is a 7-day treatment.

 

[Skyhook]

they had a near zero load during the build up and were flying by the first week in July when the flow turned on in spectacular fashion and they made hay,

How disappointing for you!



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[pargyle]

Does this sound about right for autumn/winter/spring mite treatments..
• Mid August apiguard
• Christmas time oxalic acid
• Mid March oxalic acid

Thanks

Personallly I'm with DerekM on the no treatment front but if you are intent on treating then you should really be sure that they actually DO have a mite load that needs treatment.

There are a number of beekeepers on here who will state, categorically, that you should treat for Varroa ... even with no tangible sign of dead ones on the floor. My view (and a growing number of others) is that you should be sure that you have an infestation that needs treatment before you treat. We are led to believe that ALL colonies are infested to some extent but, if you have a thriving, healthy, colony then they may, possibly, be coping well with the levels of varroa and treatment just weakens any natural resistance or ability to deal with it.

Before you treat I would suggest that you do two more reliable tests than a simple drop test:

1. Uncap some drone cells and inspect them for signs of varroa. You may need to pull the contents out of the cell to see exactly the state of affairs. If there are varroa found in a number of cells then you have an indication that the infestation is fairly serious and needs attention.

2. Put a handful of bees from combs that have capped brood into a jar with a mesh top (a kilner jar with a disc of mesh cut to fit is ideal). Drop some icing sugar into the jar through the mesh and give the bees a gentle shake so that they get covered in the sugar. This will cause the varroa to drop off the bees and after a few minutes you can turn the jar upside down and out will come the sugar and any phoretic varroa that were on the bees. If you know roughly how many bees you have in the jar you can use the FERA calculation to determin the extent of the infestation and treat accordingly.The bees will not be harmed and can be put back into the hive.

2a. You can do the same test as at 2. above but instead of using icing sugar use surgical alcohol which will have the same effect of removing any phoretic mites but, clearly, will kill the bees - although you can then accurately count the bees in your test.

Armed with some real information you can then decide what level (or if any) treatment is required.

Obviously, those people with larger numbers of hives would find this level of investigation a bit of a chore and it is, probably, more cost effective and less time consuming to just treat as JBM suggests. But I am of the opinion that bees benefit from less treatment if it is at all possible and that, perhaps, in the future we can look forward to stronger colonies that are able to manage the threat from Varroa with less assistance from us and perhaps the mites will not develop the immunity to current treatments in the way they evolved immunity to pyrethroids.

Clearly, if the colony is heavily infected then it's a no brainer, without some intervention the colony will suffer and could die out, they will need some treatment prior to winter and you then have choices about what you use. And that's not a can of worms that I want to open again here ...

Apologies to those who have seen my comments elsewhere ...

 

[Vramin]

Beware if relying on mite drop to decide whether on not to treat because its not reliable.

I had a drop of 8 per day last August. The varroa calculator suggested a population of 320 mites, but when I treated I counted 3000!

I think that autumn treatment is essential regardless of recorded mite drop. Indeed, doing an autumn treatment of Apiguard or MAQS, followed by a winter trickle of Oxalic acid as standard renders mite drop measurement almost redundant.

 

[mbc]

How disappointing for you!



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the best thing about loads of hay collected by bees is that they can be hung on skyhooks