Varroa Treatment

[Joanna_MZC]

Hello everybody,

We could really use some advice about varroa treatment this autumn. We've got one hive (out of four) which seems to have a real problem with mites; the boards we use to check are now absolutely dense with them. We were using HiveClean during the summer, and we've just given a four week treatment of Apilife Var, but the density has only slightly lessened.

We're considering trying another treatment, but we're not sure what's the best this late in the season, or if the colony is so infected that there isn't much we can do.

Advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks,
Joanna

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

dead mites will continue to drop for a while after the treartment ends. Clean the board and check again.
Apilife should work - it has thymol in it as well as the other touchy feely snakeoil stuff but I've never used it myself so can't comment.

 

[JohnF]

Having the same problem so doing another treatment and monitoring every day.
I have had this before but not with so many hives.

Can't comment on hive clean as I have not used it.

 

[Gilberdyke John]

dead mites will continue to drop for a while after the treartment ends. Clean the board and check again.
Apilife should work - it has thymol in it as well as the other touchy feely snakeoil stuff but I've never used it myself so can't comment.

I used it as an experiment one one hive last year and it worked equally as well as Apiguard did on the other hives. Thymol is Thymol whether accompanied by other stuff or not. It has the advantage of not needing an eke but you need to apply 1 biscuit a week (2 to a pack so 2 packs required per National hive for the 4 week treatment. I'm using it on one hive this year plus I am trying MAQS on another. All the others are being treated with Apiguard.

 

[Amari]

Hello everybody,

We could really use some advice about varroa treatment this autumn. We've got one hive (out of four) which seems to have a real problem with mites; the boards we use to check are now absolutely dense with them. We were using HiveClean during the summer, and we've just given a four week treatment of Apilife Var, but the density has only slightly lessened.
We're considering trying another treatment, but we're not sure what's the best this late in the season, or if the colony is so infected that there isn't much we can do.
Advice would be much appreciated.
Thanks,
Joanna

Yes, worrying if one hive shows a heavy varroa drop and not the other three. I would ponder about giving that one colony a MAQ. The manufacturer's blurb advises spring or late summer application. Depends whether you believe summer ended on Sept 1st or ends on Sept 20th.

 

[Ben90]

I avoid using it except on hives that have a severe issue that needs to be dealt with as it's a synthetic chemical and made by Bayer, but Bayvarol is still very effective in much of the country. Just check if resistance is known in your area before using it, and use it sparingly when you have a hive that really needs it to help prevent resistance development.