Varroa count after OA treatment

[Vanterrier]

After reading the apiarist's blog about OA treatment I brought my planned OA treatment forward from my previously planned Christmas treatment.
From below an OMF with a 5" eke, 2.3g used and all gone from the pan, there was a small puff near the end of three minutes of power-on.
24hrs later I have inspected the correx tray to see no mites, not one.
Is this good news or have I checked too soon? Do I put the tray back in?
I previously had two Apivar strips in for six weeks from 24th August and saw fairly low numbers then.
K

 

[Curly green finger's]

After reading the apiarist's blog about OA treatment I brought my planned OA treatment forward from my previously planned Christmas treatment.
From below an OMF with a 5" eke, 2.3g used and all gone from the pan, there was a small puff near the end of three minutes of power-on.
24hrs later I have inspected the correx tray to see no mites, not one.
Is this good news or have I checked too soon? Do I put the tray back in?
I previously had two Apivar strips in for six weeks from 24th August and saw fairly low numbers then.
K

Usually on day two three I start to see mite drop .
24 hrs not so much .
Have you been checking inspection boards for brood cappings could be mites under cappings
I also was going to bring my winter vape forward but half of the stock are brooding still. Can I ask Why you brought your treatment forward pls.

Thanks
Cgf

 

[Vanterrier]

Ok I'll put the tray back in and keep checking thanks
There's been no brood capping for a while now so when the Apiarist said brood will/may be starting as early as Christmas, now was a good time to vape while they are broodless.
K

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

needs to be for a good few days to be of any worth as an indicator of your drop

 

[Curly green finger's]

Ok I'll put the tray back in and keep checking thanks
There's been no brood capping for a while now so when the Apiarist said brood will/may be starting as early as Christmas, now was a good time to vape while they are broodless.
K

I leave mine in quite a lot over winter with regular cleaning , 5/7 days of leaving your inspection board in after vaping would be my recommendation .

 

[Vanterrier]

Also see extract from email just received from BMH... seems the thing to do by the experts

Saturday 25th November, there was NOT A SINGLE CELL OF BROOD IN THE COLONY. Now is the time to treat your colonies with Oxalic Acid for maximum efficacy!

Of course, there will be local and regional variations but the back end of November is a good guide for targeting a broodless colony with OA

k

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

LASI studies found that this time of the year was the best chance to find colonies broodless.

 

[Erichalfbee]

I use OAV for an accelerated drop counted 24 hours after vaping.
Using 20% as a rough estimate of the number of mites on adult bees ( the remains 80% being in the brood) gives me an idea if the size of the infestation. If I see lots of mites dropped in the first 24 hours I’m fairly happy this time of year. If I see none then I presume there’s brood ( though never as much as in the summer, of course)
If there’s brood I have to give the bees the full four vape course.

 

[Vanterrier]

Still not a single mite dropped...

K

 

[Linda G]

Could I just check if it is safe for the bees for me to use vaping (as opposed to trickling) at this time of the year? If so, would I use the same amount of OA as at earlier times of the year? This is the first year I have switched to vaping and it was very successful because of the advice I received on this forum.Thanks.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Could I just check if it is safe for the bees for me to use vaping (as opposed to trickling) at this time of the year?

Yes, perfectly safe if not safer, same 'rules' thought, do not do it when it's absolutely freezing as you only want the bees in a loose cluster

If so, would I use the same amount of OA as at earlier times of the year?

yes

 

[user 819]

Going to vape all mine in the next fortnight once we get a reasonable dry day above 6 - 8c.

 

[Linda G]

Yes, perfectly safe if not safer, same 'rules' thought, do not do it when it's absolutely freezing as you only want the bees in a loose cluster

yes

Thanks a lot! I'm planning to do it on Wednesday as it is forecast to be a bit warmer and drier here.

 

[BernardBlack]

Approx 250 mites after 3 days in one colony.

No mites in another.

It’s mad, Ted.

 

[RichardK]

I use OAV for an accelerated drop counted 24 hours after vaping.
Using 20% as a rough estimate of the number of mites on adult bees ( the remains 80% being in the brood) gives me an idea if the size of the infestation. If I see lots of mites dropped in the first 24 hours I’m fairly happy this time of year. If I see none then I presume there’s brood ( though never as much as in the summer, of course)
If there’s brood I have to give the bees the full four vape course.

Interesting the 20% v's 80%. How do you get to those figures? I really like the idea of using that as a rough indication of infestation level.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Sorry Richard...I've quoted that figure so often I've forgotten where I got it from

 

[Jon.21]

I did 2 oxalic acid vape treatments 5 days apart on days around 10degc in the afternoon just before Christmas with inspection boards in on 3 colonies. Good evidence of cappings dropped so bees in there but only spotted 1 mite on one of the boards. Either I’m not doing the treatment right, the treatments not effective or there’s very few mites in there on the bees.
I did apivar on all colonies in sept into October.

 

[Murox]

If they are brooding a course of 4 vapes would be a good idea.

 

[Jon.21]

Was wondering whether the cappings were stores or brood. Is there any easy way to tell ?

 

[Curly green finger's]

Was wondering whether the cappings were stores or brood. Is there any easy way to tell ?

Yes brood cappings are usually brown and store cappings are white