Varroa count during Apiguard treatment

[drstitson]

varroa drop with apilifevar

I was getting 1-2 per day in first week then 5/day on the one tray inspected so far in week 2.

 

[Arfermo]

See item #18 on this link http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=6627&page=2 and think yourselves lucky. Mine seems to be riddled with mites this year. Am reluctant to go for third Apiguard tray as my debilitated bees need a respite to produce winter brood. At the moment they are actually happier now that Apiguard is gone, bringing in loads of balsam pollen etc and they have a super of capped honey and 1gal+ heavy syrup in Miller feeders, so will wait and hope for Xmas and oxalic.

 

[darren64]

I know- I've been lucky! Thing is they appeared symptom free- big strong colony, no deformed bees or wings, and whenever I checked drone brood I was unable to find any mites. I was starting to wonder if they were mite free- until I got them on a varroa floor and had a drop of about 30/day. Next year I will definitely look harder, and never use a solid floor again!

Possible lesson for other newbies- they look a lot bigger and more obvious in photos than in real life!

I also found they are not as red as I expected.

 

[dc197]

My drops varied from 10 per day to 80 per day during the course of Api Life var (same active ingredient).

 

[Dave /Oscroft]

apiguard

see my post on unapiguard, after the first treatment which they didnt like, there has been no varroa drop, I have been using hive clean during the season as recommended by my tutor. Ive also been advised that it may not be necessary to do the second treatment but use oxalic either in December or January on a warmish day if there is one.

Cheers
Dave W

 

[Polyanwood]

In my view it is bad practice only to give half the recommended treatment. This is because most varroa is in the brood, so you need to treat over at least a whole brood cycle... as it suggests on Apiguard packet.

 

[Macbear]

Interesting discussion. I counted my trays after first dose of Apiguard had been in for 12 days. 86 for one hive, 170 for the other. I wonder how many more will fall over the next fortnight. Certainly, I hope it's not in the thousands!

 

[Erichalfbee]

Interesting discussion. I counted my trays after first dose of Apiguard had been in for 12 days. 86 for one hive, 170 for the other. I wonder how many more will fall over the next fortnight. Certainly, I hope it's not in the thousands!

I once had a colony drop over seven thousand in a month of OAV. I’ll try to find the thread.