How bad is it?

After a shockingly bad round of mite samples on Saturday I went round more yards on Sunday to see if it was localized problem or more wide spread.

[@BucksBeesS.C.]

Great video on being sure

[@jessicafairfax_Bens_Bees]

You might want to cage the queen in the hive to make a break in the brood cycle. You can leave her in there for 5-7 days and it helps with the mites a good bit.

[@handsburyhoneybees893]

I called nod last year and was ask them about how their formula worked. I was told that one pad does not kill underneath the capping‘s. Two pads do kill underneath the capping’s. But no amount of pads will kill the hard shell females. So you might be washing all the hard shell females.

[@MinnesotaBeekeeper]

I like you're right there Peter. Sounds like you might have some robbing of heavily mited hives close by?

[@BeekeepingwithTheBeeWhisperer]

I hope so, better that than finding I am using and recommending a faulty product

[@woodlandharvesthoneycompanyllc]

Who knows what happened that caused the formic not be very effective or maybe it was and the bees picked up a mite bomb. I washed my colonies and came up with zero, 1, 2 and then a count of 35 in one colony. So I decided to treat them all. We are having 90 plus temps so I have been using OAV. I know it doesn't get the mites under the cappings but I am repeating treatment every 4 days for 4 or 5 times the get the mites that emerge with the bees. I didn't want to wait for the temps to cool down and I have had queens stop laying after being hit with formic. I have had the same issue with Apiguard. I am checking the bottom boards on the screen bottom hives I have and will continue treatment until the mite drop stops. Then I will test them all again.

[@BeekeepingwithTheBeeWhisperer]

Exactly my experience. I went rouns with OA to hold the worst of them back till its cool enough to go round again with Formic on Friday.

[@framcesmoore]

The folks from the company that makes it told me It loses it s efect when u have on more the 3 boxes they told me best is no suppers I had stacks 5-7 boxes on the hives so I waited and removed all the suppers then treated the 2 brood boxes. Just a thought. Hope u get them under controle. I am still using oa every week now. they are picking some up from some where and the only good mite is a dead 1. have a good day Peter. hope u and your hives do good

[@BeekeepingwithTheBeeWhisperer]

That would seem to be the most likely reason for poor performance....I would be interested to know if putting more than the two pad dose in a 5 or 6 super hive would be a safe option.

[@framcesmoore]

@@BeekeepingwithTheBeeWhisperer That is not a bad idea u can call them, there is someone to answer the phone when u call that in it self is just wonderful. Have a Blessed week.

[@pbest5040]

A comment This is a very good video. However,With all due respect. I would interpret your findings a little differently. In August , the colony slows down the brood production. In July, with full sheets of brood , and the accompanying mites in that brood, the mite check can reveal x number of mites. Now , with maybe less than half the amount of capped brood, many those July mites are are now phoretic, which shows as a HUGE increase in mites , which are some new mites but also the July mites , now detectable. You have to understand the dynamics of both the colony growth and decline and the resulting mite position to correctly interpret what the mite wash is revealing. Mite checks , just before and just after treatment will give you a much more accurate picture. I think the time lapse from treatment to second check lead to a startling picture , mostly due to the dynamics of colony decline and mite location . All that being said , I too have had varying results using Formic Pro. Quality control?Who knows. Bottom line though, is without that treatment you very likely would see many more mites. It's been a great year for the little ^&#*× 's. Cheers...

[@BeekeepingwithTheBeeWhisperer]

Comments welcome! More frequent sampling is certainly required. My only debate with that logic is that Formic Pro is reputed to kill mites capped in the brood...so there should be no rebound....unless it is not doing what it is supposed to do.

[@rtxhoneybees]

I have been confused by the treatments that are reported to kill mites below the cappings. Do they really or do they remain effective until the brood hatches and then the mite are killed? I am pretty sure that is how the strips works. Not as sure about formic or apiguard. @@BeekeepingwithTheBeeWhisperer

[@user-rc8vf2mz8o]

What is your opinion of the sugar roll method.? It's easy to do with the varroa easy check and the bees live. I tried it for the first time a month ago and found 5 mites and the treated with formic pro. Guess I better check again!

[@MinnesotaBeekeeper]

Dawn dish soap appears to release more mites. Shaking the hell out of honey bees for the sugar roll? Just my opinion but Randy Oliver has give them all a test, this is what he's settled on. Dawn. I've often wondered about mixing a little bit of Dawn dish soap in with an alcohol wash. It is the high level of surfactants that causes the mites to release better.

[@BeekeepingwithTheBeeWhisperer]

I believe that it has been shown that the bees are so bashed and bruised during the sugar shake that they do not live long afterwards......But worse is that it is about half as accurate a measure as alcohol or dawn liquid. So while it feels better seeing the bees walk away from the test we are getting poorer inofmation and they are still dying. So I no longer use that method.

[@dawndominick2833]

Just curious if you did the 2 strips at once method. According to Nod, doing 1 strip at a time does NOT kill mites below the caps, only the 2 strips at once method does.

[@donstanley8514]

After 13 years of trying ever expensive treatment, I only use Oxalic acid. Dose the trick for me. And swifter sheets and peppermint candy for the beetles.

[@russellkoopman3004]

How many treatments of OA are you giving and how often?

[@donstanley8514]

@@russellkoopman3004 3 treatments 5 days apart.

[@MinnesotaBeekeeper]

What are your mite counts?

[@olddave4833]

that's all I ever do. 5 treatments 5 days apart in the fall, started last week. 2 in the spring., this year I may do one the day before we wrap with felt paper. I use the gas vap with the butane torch. takes me about 4 hours to do 38 hives, but I'm retired and would probably be in the bee yard anyway.

[@uzunerfatih]

This OAV is easy and does the job nicely! kzbin.info/www/bejne/a6C8i4CPZaimm5osi=X-oKviIMaTdBBsry

[@anthonymauceri8919]

I did treatment a month a ago but we got hot weather and I was just able to check last week so I introduced a new queen and it wasn’t acceptable and there are no brood just resources and 5 frames off bees is it worth getting a new queen at this time of year I live in the northeast region

[@tooldiebum]

First time I used this year got me wondering now peter. I did the 14 day treatment went in and seen queen and eggs after everything looked ok seemed like it disrupts the queen from laying tho, were more open cell then usual. when’s the latest you can reapply if I need to thanks

[@BeekeepingwithTheBeeWhisperer]

I do not believe there is a time gap set treat as needed.

[@tooldiebum]

Thanks Peter

[@daisyshoney6021]

What was the count before the treatment?

[@aCanadianBeekeepersBlog]

Emergency checking no doubt

[@BeekeepingwithTheBeeWhisperer]

Thank God it (and the next yard) was way better than the other.

[@donstanley8514]

My 95 year old mother in law told me her grandfather put peppermint candy in his hives but she didn’t know why. Must have been for mites, because they didn’t have beetles back then.

[@rtxhoneybees]

Was he in the US? When did he keep bees. Varroa got here in 1987.

[@wildbadrehna5780]

some kind of menthol was used for tracheal mites .... he maybe was trying his version ...an old guy I knew was playing around with peppermint mint oil for tracheal mites

[@daisyshoney6021]

Peppermint help for SHBs

[@lordmike9384]

I find that formic never works well with supers on.

[@BeekeepingwithTheBeeWhisperer]

Interesting I will watch for a correlation.

[@glennsnaturalhoney4571]

Weather permitting I apply FPRO when I pull supers off.