Oxalic acid treatment and warm weather.

[newpete]

Newbie question, I need to trickle oxalic acid this winter, when's best time to do it considering its still quiet warm for mid December? Should the bees be in a tight cluster before treatment??? Thanks Peter,

 

[BrianO]

Newbie question, I need to trickle oxalic acid this winter, when's best time to do it considering its still quiet warm for mid December? Should the bees be in a tight cluster before treatment??? Thanks Peter,

Ideally in January after a prolonged cold snap when you are brood less, BUT ....if you have a serious mite infestation you need to act sooner.

Knockdown of large mite infestation which will damage all your bees is more important than the avoiding the resultant loss of brood that will result from your treatment.

Key from now on is to closely monitor your Bees and treat early , early being just after crop removal and then again later in autumn and Winter if need be.

Keep a close eye on them.

You do not want them infested going into winter and clustering allowing transfer of mites in cluster and resulting in serious damage to Bees , and a weak emerging in Spring, or finding you have no colony at all !.



Lot of informative posting currently on treating in main forum, ignore all the bickering and you will find a wealth of information.

 

[Arfermo]

Newbie question, I need to trickle oxalic acid this winter, when's best time to do it considering its still quiet warm for mid December? Should the bees be in a tight cluster before treatment??? Thanks Peter,

How do you know you need to trickle oxalic this winter? Some don't bother. The best time is after a fairly long cold spell when the queen has stopped laying and that is usually just after Xmas and into first week of January. This year is quite unusual and it is a question of guessing if and when would be the optimum. Some suggest queens are still laying even now!! At some stage one has to decide to bite the bullet and treat if the colony is to come out of winter in good fettle. Almost certain that trickling is best done when there is a tight cluster - with sublimation it doesn't matter much as the dust gets liberally scattered everywhere for the bees to walk it in and over their mates. Trickling has a tendency to crystallise on the bees some say but anything is better than nothing if infestation justifies it. Trickling is not the way I have ever treated.

 

[beeno]

Hi newpete, How big is the varroa drop? If urgent because of big drop I would look to see what your seal brood situation is, as it only kills phoretic mites i.e. mites on the bees, not mites in the brood.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

sealed brood or not - if he has a serious mite infestation it's better to kill half than none - going in and ripping the brood nest apart just to count capped brood isn't going to solve a thing

 

[Swarm]

Joined Feb 2010 so I'd assume beekeeping for 5 years? Probably Autumn treatment followed by mid Winter trickle regime as usual part of IPM and just wondering when best to administer the OA, given the mild weather.
If that's the case, I'd wait for a cold snap, Winter Solstice is almost upon us, by end of Dec/early Jan there'll be an opportunity.
I wouldn't dream of lifting frames looking for brood.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I'd wait for a cold snap, Winter Solstice is almost upon us, by end of Dec/early Jan there'll be an opportunity.
I wouldn't dream of lifting frames looking for brood.

And if your whole world revolves around whether there's brood or not there (or indeed you are concerned about the exact mortality rate of your mites) pop in the inspection board for a few days - it will show you where the cluster is, whether they're consuming stores, if there's any brood emerging as well as a guess of how much and you can see how many mites have shuffled off this mortal coil in the time the board's been in

 

[newpete]

Joined feb 2010 but first year with bees, 3 hives going into winter, 20+ mites on boards in 2 hives after 3 days less than 10 on 3rd, treated with apigaurd sept-oct might have been a bit late and colder to work, thanks for all responses really appreciate the input...

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Joined feb 2010 but first year with bees, 3 hives going into winter, 20+ mites on boards in 2 hives after 3 days less than 10 on 3rd, treated with apigaurd sept-oct might have been a bit late and colder to work, thanks for all responses really appreciate the input...

I'd relax a bit, no immediate urgency to treat, enjoy Christmas then hopefully in the new year we'll get the usual cold snap, after which you can treat if you so wish.