Varroa count during Apiguard treatment

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Beezy

House Bee
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Hi,

Can someone point me in the direction where I can find average varroa drop during Apiguard treatment please? I've looked everywhere but can't find it.

I started the treatment on Sunday, and so far had 8 mites on Monday and 22 on Tuesday - just want to see if this is a normal result.
 
Depends if you have 20 mites or 20,000 mites,how much sealed brood..ect..no such thing as average drop,regarding number of mites per day.
 
I can't point you to a specfic guide (although there is some case study info on the web), but I can say that you should expect the amount to fluctuate and indeed possibly increase towards the end of the 4 week treatment.

I panicked a bit last year when after 3 weeks treatment the mite drop rapidly increased, as I thought the mite problem was getting worse not better, however I then realised after some web research that the four week treatment span results in the mite drop being related to new brood hatching out and therefore you may get a massive mite drop at in the 2nd half of the treatment, depending on the laying/brood timing of your hive.

The key point is it is vital to make sure you use the two doses of Apiguard back to back and for the full four weeks. What really matters is the mite drop count at the end of the 4 week treatment.
 
The time that I did a daily count on an Apiguard treatment, I found that numbers varied (so much so that no trend could be calculated) until about the 28th day when the count decreased.

Ruary
 
The instructions that came with my apiguard trays say to treat with the first tray for 2 weeks then 4 weeks with the second,which is 6 weeks in all.
 
Hi,

Can someone point me in the direction where I can find average varroa drop during Apiguard treatment please? I've looked everywhere but can't find it.

I started the treatment on Sunday, and so far had 8 mites on Monday and 22 on Tuesday - just want to see if this is a normal result.

Did you take the foil lids off:biggrinjester: one of mine ( from a swarm) has dropped 1200 so far and the one next door 80, all in three weeks
 
I have left a super on to help them through the winter,is it ok to leave it on while I'm treating with apiguard(will they readily eat honey thats tainted with thymol?)or should I take it off and replace it when the treatment is finished?
 
I have left a super on to help them through the winter,is it ok to leave it on while I'm treating with apiguard(will they readily eat honey thats tainted with thymol?)or should I take it off and replace it when the treatment is finished?


apiguard vapour needs space to circulate so where have you placed the apiguard it should be on top of the brood frames with an empty super or emty Eke to give it room to circualte,

what is your set up
 
brood box,apiguard on top of the frames,eke,queen excluder,empty super,crown board with feeding holes,full super,then super with frames for cleaning.
 
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brood box,apiguard on top of the frames,eke,queen excluder,empty super,crown board with feeding holes,full super,then super with frames for cleaning.


too large a volume of hive for your varroa treatment

take off the first empty super and block the crown board feed hole, shake out any bees above the crown board onto the landing board

tape up the back of the floor and ensure your entrance block is in
 
too large a volume of hive for your varroa treatment

take off the first empty super and block the crown board feed hole, shake out any bees above the crown board onto the landing board

tape up the back of the floor and ensure your entrance block is in

cheers for that,much appreciated,
 
3rd tray?

I'm into week 4, and holding steady at about 80-100/day. If this is still happening at the end of the week, I'm thinking of applying a third until the numbers fall off.

Comments please?
 
Skyhook
I've done that.
Daily fall end of tray 2: c30..

After 3 days of tray 3: 25



(started with hundreds)
 
I'm into week 4, and holding steady at about 80-100/day. If this is still happening at the end of the week, I'm thinking of applying a third until the numbers fall off.

Comments please?

exactly what i am going to do with my high count one,

i was thinking of using thymol grease patties though instead of apiguard as others in my BKA as using it and anecdotally it appears to work better with lower counts the following year but will i think stick with apiguards

but yours must have been very near collapse at 80(100) x21days=say 1800 or 1900 as way over the critical number 1000 by day 28
 
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Varroa drop

After 4 weeks and 2 trays I was still dropping over 100 per day so I have used a thrid treatement and am now down to about 25 per day after a couple of days. This was a swarm that I took in that was riddled with varroa and started to produce many dwv. I treated extensively with hiveclean until I had harvested but still amazed that the drop has been well over 2,000. I tried icing sugar which seemed to have very little effect. Whilst Hiveclean was not particularly effective, it allowed me to last until I had taken the honey and coudl hen treat with Api.
 
After 4 weeks and 2 trays I was still dropping over 100 per day so I have used a thrid treatement and am now down to about 25 per day after a couple of days. This was a swarm that I took in that was riddled with varroa and started to produce many dwv. I treated extensively with hiveclean until I had harvested but still amazed that the drop has been well over 2,000. I tried icing sugar which seemed to have very little effect. Whilst Hiveclean was not particularly effective, it allowed me to last until I had taken the honey and coudl hen treat with Api.

Did you oxalic the swarm when you acquired it?
 
Did you oxalic the swarm when you acquired it?
No - unfortunately I did not receive such advice. If I ever get a swarm again I will know to treat it immediately. At the time it was a swarm from "a known source" etc. I monitored varroa from dat one and started to get concerned so asked a "pro" to take a look and was told I had nothing to worry about!
 
but yours must have been very near collapse at 80(100) x21days=say 1800 or 1900 as way over the critical number 1000 by day 28

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! :redface:
 

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