Need for oxalic treatment?

[Bakerbee]

Im new to bee keeping this year. I have one hive atm and hope to split next year if build up is good. My question is i treated my hive with apitraz in september. Do i need to do another oxalic trickle now they are broodless, or was the apitraz enough of a treatment. I dont want to over load my bees with unecessary treatments but would like to get a treatment in while broodless if appropriate and weather permits. I would use a warm syrup solution, 5ml per seam of cluster. Thoughts plz .

 

[linoleum bonypart]

Trickle...... yes
I.p.m..... integrated pest management throughout the year

 

[fatshark]

Midwinter, when broodless, is your very best time to hit the mites. The difference in mite levels next June/July is probably influenced more by the number present in winter than anything else. Minimise them now and they'll remain manageable then.

PS "another" oxalic acid trickle?? I presume you mean 'an' oxalic acid trickle?

 

[Erichalfbee]

Yes do it now.
Did you take a mite count a month after treatment?
It’s always a good thing to check there has been no re-infestation

 

[Curly green fingers]

Yes do it now.
Did you take a mite count a month after treatment?
It’s always a good thing to check there has been no re-infestation

I agree with you Erica
I used apiguard in July for almost seven weeks. In August there was a huge varroa drop early September when I started feeding syrup I sprayed my girls with a weak sugar syrup to in courage grooming no varroa . I've moved my hive in December checked inspection board
Mite count in single figures so there still there. I suppose if the count was in the 50s hundreds I would want to do something about it . cheers mark

 

[Bakerbee]

Thanks everyone. I am going to trickle today. I have a super on for bees to use during winter and early spring. I am not going to keep or use any of it for honey. Is it ok to leave this on after trickle for them. Reading up it says take supers off. Im assuming that is if the super is intended for human consumption.

 

[Swarm]

Don't worry about the super.

 

[Bakerbee]

Thanks steve.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Reading up it says take supers off. Im assuming that is if the super is intended for human consumption.

There's still a lot of old and duff advice around.
Saw one 'expert' on the beecraft yootoob video ripping the hive apart before trickling - it will be fine to use the super next season - as long as the bees have cleaned out any stores from it.
Leave the super on - if the bees are in it, you shouldn't disturb them anyway - if the bees are down in the brood box below, gravity will carry the syrup down - you squirt OA on the seams of bees not the frames and comb.
if the shallow is underneath the brood - no difference whatsoever.
If you have treated properly in the autumn, there is no need to trickle now - remember that originally it was done instead of other treatments and was the only time of year it was effective, but no harm in doing it as a supplementary treatment but no panic if weather and circumstances prevent you from doing so.

 

[Beefriendly]

If you have treated properly in the autumn, there is no need to trickle now -

Okay, Okay Okay guilty!!
I vaped (dribbling would also have been fine) after what seemed to be successful autumn treatments.
Very glad I did, a couple of "clean" hives dropped quite a considerable number of varroa (over a 100, less than 300).....now where the hell did those varroa come from....these hives were dropping less than 10 varroa over 48 hours after their 4th Autumn vape in mid October.
I look at it as added insurance or re-assurance that your autumn treatments did work. A sort of "get out of jail free" card when you thought your autumn treatment worked ...but hadn't worked quite as well as you thought.

 

[Millet]

Okay, Okay Okay guilty!!
I vaped (dribbling would also have been fine) after what seemed to be successful autumn treatments.
Very glad I did, a couple of "clean" hives dropped quite a considerable number of varroa (over a 100, less than 300).....now where the hell did those varroa come from....these hives were dropping less than 10 varroa over 48 hours after their 4th Autumn vape in mid October.
I look at it as added insurance or re-assurance that your autumn treatments did work. A sort of "get out of jail free" card when you thought your autumn treatment worked ...but hadn't worked quite as well as you thought.

I have had a similar result, after five gassing sessions during the back end of summer i had very few dropping weekly after the five treatments, however i vaped last week and there was well over 100 on two of the hives inspection tray's and they where not fully pushed in so the numbers would have been higher, the other hive had around 5 mites dropped, mad ehh, i blasted them again today to be on the safe side.

 

[fatshark]

The other way to think about the need to treat in midwinter is the influence it has of slowing the buildup of dangerous levels of mites by the following summer. The difference between a couple of hundred mites in midwinter and ~20 is huge.

Furthermore, if you treat in autumn at a time to minimise winter bee exposure to viruses (rather than minimise mite levels at the end of the year, which is a different thing altogether) you'll actually have a higher mite level in midwinter, because the mites have a chance to replicate during late-season brood rearing.

 

[Millet]

The other way to think about the need to treat in midwinter is the influence it has of slowing the buildup of dangerous levels of mites by the following summer. The difference between a couple of hundred mites in midwinter and ~20 is huge.

Furthermore, if you treat in autumn at a time to minimise winter bee exposure to viruses (rather than minimise mite levels at the end of the year, which is a different thing altogether) you'll actually have a higher mite level in midwinter, because the mites have a chance to replicate during late-season brood rearing.

I thought vaping in Autumn at five day intervals was the main aim to minimise the mite levels for winter bees and in doing so reducing virus levels for winter build up at the same time, and then a final blast in winter during the brood less period to kill just about all the other mites that that escaped the crystals during the first wave of gassing strikes.

 

[fatshark]

When are your winter bees larvae/pupae? Did you treat before then? For some 'autumn' is September, others it's late October.

Studies by Dainat, Neumann et al (Bern, Switzerland ... average Nov/Dec temp = 3C) showed that premature worker death due to high virus levels in winter bees was detectable as early as mid-November. These bees were ~50 days old. They measured this. Therefore they were eggs/larvae in early/mid September. To protect these from Varroa you'd need to treat by mid-September at the latest.

Of course, there's going to be some variation due to temperature etc. However, if you think of the laying rate of the queen late in the season (slowing down dramatically) and the size of the colony going into the winter (hopefully big and remaining strong for the longer the better) then it's clear that long-lived winter bees must be being reared quite early in the autumn. These are the ones that need to be protected.

 

[Millet]

When are your winter bees larvae/pupae? Did you treat before then? For some 'autumn' is September, others it's late October.

Studies by Dainat, Neumann et al (Bern, Switzerland ... average Nov/Dec temp = 3C) showed that premature worker death due to high virus levels in winter bees was detectable as early as mid-November. These bees were ~50 days old. They measured this. Therefore they were eggs/larvae in early/mid September. To protect these from Varroa you'd need to treat by mid-September at the latest.

Of course, there's going to be some variation due to temperature etc. However, if you think of the laying rate of the queen late in the season (slowing down dramatically) and the size of the colony going into the winter (hopefully big and remaining strong for the longer the better) then it's clear that long-lived winter bees must be being reared quite early in the autumn. These are the ones that need to be protected.

I treated from September and into October at intervals advised to get any mites from emerging cells through out that period five treatments in total and one treatment last week and one today, i am not too clued up on bee keeping in the UK let alone Switzerland, but i do know that if these vapes i have done from Autumn and now do not work the bees will be cream crackered because i am not doing them anymore till next year..

 

[Beefriendly]

It would seem that a midwinter treatment (vaping or trickling) is essential, despite how well you think your autumn treatments have been.

 

[For want of a better word]

I treated from September and into October at intervals advised to get any mites from emerging cells through out that period five treatments in total and one treatment last week and one today, i am not too clued up on bee keeping in the UK let alone Switzerland, but i do know that if these vapes i have done from Autumn and now do not work the bees will be cream crackered because i am not doing them anymore till next year..

One of my (yellow) bee colonies was alive with mites.... each vaporising with the varomor resulted in a drop of 100 + mites per day, on three vapes with a three day gap in between. left for a week and then hit them with the Varrox ( 2g of Apipoxall of course!)... drop over 24 hours .... 9!!

Hopefully I will not lose any to the Winter trickle



Answer is to treat and keep varroa levells to a minimum!!!


Nadelik Lowen

 

[Erichalfbee]

Answer is to treat and keep varroa levells to a minimum!!!


Nadelik Lowen

Yep. Monitor frequently

 

[Swarm]

It's about time we had a new, ground breaking treatment method.

 

[Hivemaker.]

It would seem that a midwinter treatment (vaping or trickling) is essential

Not found that to be so here.