Varroa Mite Treatment In Spring

Varroa cause physical damage weaken bees and transmit a variety of pathogens particularly viruses. Normally a treatment in spring wouldnt be necessary but we had no option but to treat now - since varroa like the bees will grow exponentially if left unchecked at this time of year which could severely hinder colonies later in the year.

Varroa Mites Bee Health

I am applying Apivar strips in early spring to control the parasitic varroa mite.

Varroa mite treatment in spring. To help treat any varroa infestations treatment can be carried out three times per year. I now have some apivar. Leave pads in until Spring for reuse.

In the Spring treat before extensive brood build up when you are reversing hives or preparing for pollination. At this time the colony should be established enough. After the spring treatment the mean varroa mortality increased in the treated groups reaching a maximum daily mite drop-down SEM of 240552 per colony in the trickled group and of 64933051 in the sprayed group 4 days after treatment.

When managing varroa oxalic acid should be used as a follow-up treatment in the. I have just treated a weak hive with bayvarol. You should not consider yourself done with mites by treating by the calendar though once in spring and once in fall.

At this years ABF convention Dr. At that time the control group had a mean drop-down of 025025 varroa mites. If the first one doesnt work try again.

In summary the beekeeper is in charge of managing the bees. Efficacy will depend on the ratio of phoretic to breeding mites in cells so that 65 is a pure guess. Oxalic acid vapor is a popular and effective treatment used in spring.

Vaseline coated trays placed under screens on the hive bottom board will catch falling mites for monitoring purposes see reference. Varroa are relatively large external parasites that feed on the body fluids of adult and developing honey bees. It is not advisable to use this product during spring flow.

August September after supers have been taken off so be sure youve completed all your honey extraction 3. Varroa mites Varroa destructor are the most serious threat to honey bees. Do i retreat the hive with apivar this spring.

Choose a mite treatment option and try it. Shaking the jar dislodges the mites which can be emptied onto a surface and counted. Medhat Nasr described how beekeepers in Alberta Canada find that they.

Early spring is a good time to treat varroa mites as there is little capped brood and no honey supers. But most colonies will not. Spring and late Summer natural drop prorated to 24 hours Treat twice per year.

Monitoring is important and the first count should be taken in March andor April in preparation for varroa mite population benchmark and perhaps corrective action based on those results. In the late Summer treat before mites cause damage to brood that will become Winter bee stock. Normally i would use apivar but did not have any but i had unopened bayvarol in the fridge from autumn.

In the Centre and the South all three products showed high efficacy killing more than 90 of the Varroa mites in the colonies. Varroa mite levels can be determined by placing a half cup of bees in a jar and adding 2 tablespoons of powdered sugar. Do not treat during honey flow or when supers are on the hive.

The efficacy dropped to 669 which is insufficient for protecting bee colonies until the Winter treatment. In the North however Apiguard was less reliable. There will not be a great amount of brood and most might be varroa infested if loadings are high.

Rotate treatments for varroa management to prevent the development of resistant varroa mites. Varroa Mite Treatment Schedule Spring. The inspection tray showed a lot of dead varroa after 5 days.

This means that you have to order multiple packs. But many beekeepers prefer to treat for mites in spring and autumn. The researchers attributed this low efficacy to the lower temperatures and low activity of the bees.

You may choose to do nothing and see if the bees survive. If you are using mechanical mite control such as powdered sugar and drone frames you can continue as usual. Rob Currie found that surprisingly low mite levels can affect yield 1 recommending that the late spring varroa infestation rate not exceed 1 mite per 100 bees.

In almost all cases when varroa. You can use most types of treatment at this time. Is there one perfect way to kill mites without any chance of harm to the bees or contamination of beeswax.

Ideally two counts should be performed during spring but with one you will already get the trend at the beginning of the season. If your varroa loadigs are extreeemly high even 50 efficacy could be the difference between survival or collapse in the sprng. March before supers are added 2.

Varroa Mite Treatment Summary. This year following a mild winter we have higher levels of varroa mites in our colonies than we would like BeeBase Varroa Calculator. Effective varroa mite treatment requires back to back treatments.

The timing will depend on your location and. If doing drone brood removal summer is a good time to do it. The downside is that your Varroa mites are loving spring as well.

Keep testing and checking for mites through the season. If you have a mite population explosion at some point you want to detect that and add a treatment at that time. For example use synthetic mite-strips in spring followed by a formic acid treatment in fall.

End of December start of January Oxalic acid. Updating the treatment strategy. Varroa were previously known by the species name Varroa jacobsoni.

Thats the only negative thing that youll notice with this product in comparison to others. Although I have tried various methods I have never been able to optimize comb honey production and treat for mites in spring. To get the best outcome do the treatment when the bees are active and during the highest daily temperatures.

Varroa Treatment Trunch Beekeeping Group