🔵Mite treatments! The Good, the Bad, & the sometimes Ugly! 

Thanks for the kind remarks and for watching Michael! Kill some of those devils for me!

Woohoo!

I know, it was so nice!

Thanks. The honeybee health coalition is a great resource.

sounds like a plan to me!!

Well that stinks. What dose did you use on the nuc?

@@danskisbees7348 it was actually a 5 over 5 frame I used a gram,and then something for ,next evening walked by no activity, opened nothing but open brood and few hatched bees,they were stressed and treatment was tipping point,MY fault..

@@badassbees3680 You had no way of knowing, you were trying to help them, I would have done the same thing. That shouldn't happen again because you're on top of it now.

They died anyway . They just saved time

Yeah sorry about that. I meant to have this out a month or more ago. My first experience with formic I tried it on 40 colonies. The brood was hit pretty hard and I had many colonies superseding. Not cool.

@@kamonreynolds It's not your fault. I really appreciate all the time and effort you put into your videos. It must be a lot of work being a full time Beekeeper and making a new video everyday almost. Even though I'm in Massachusetts there is a ton of good info in your videos. I enjoy the Facebook group as well. Thanks again for all the hard work!

@@tedjackson5272 Im from MA as well and just started. Where abouts are you located and what shop do you go to if you don't mind me asking.

Sounds like the mites are never allowed to damage the colony! Winner of a plan!

@@kamonreynolds I started going this a couple years ago. I came from an Agricultural background and we used an IPM program to help deal with pests in green houses and to help prevent resistance to chemicals. One big part I forgot to mention. I don't treat unless the the mite thresh holds are hit. So for example, during the summer if the mite counts are low and remain low. I don't treat with oxalic acid.

I don't pull frames but I pop lids in freezing temps if I need to.

Haha it is all Laurel's idea! I wouldn't even know where to find a shirt like these.

I'm guessing different colonies will give different results, but a few months back I had a developing infestation of those critters and I gave them two full strength doses of Apiguard...haven't seen hide nor hair of 'em since. "Your results may vary"...let's hope it works for ya!

@@user-md4di6yg2p used apivar for winter treatment in south texas.... Murdered the mites..... All colonies made it through the winter.

Sorry hadn't completed that post, above from the University of Hertfordshire Pesticide Properties Database. 'Amitraz is an amidine acaricide and insecticide that is currently not approved for use in the EU but is still used in some parts of the world.' ...from the same source, University of Hertfordshire. I appreciate your point about it perhaps being less repellent to bees than the organic acids and not 'burning ' them but... I don't want neurotoxins anywhere near my home, I would rather 'burn ' a small amount of brood (not that this has been an issue for me). There is the bigger picture of the how we treat this world and not just how we treat our bees ( and I do care for mine to the best of my ability and take varroa seriously of course.) I respect your experience and have learned a lot from your videos but hope your dedication, curiosity and independent thinking will enable you to develop mite control that works for you without using neurotoxins like Amitraz.

I have been wondering the same - would not an annual rotation be effective? I have been scouring the web for anything that says the proximity of time to lapse between uses of the three. So far all I have found is that Apigaurd is not to be use conjunctively with any other mite treatment and that OA boots the effectiveness of formic. Curious as to what y'all think on this

Boat Man hi. I’ve never removed a Queen. Have used apiguard and OA w/success.

Hello Boat Man. No sir, we don't remove the queens. The queen usually doesn't have mites because the bees are constantly grooming her.

If they need reducing I would do it in October myself in TN.

I was thinking would it be normal to reduce all the bees from a 3 deep to a double deep ?

I did?? On Oxalic you can use it by itself as long as you keep ahead of the mites no problem.

They jumped from the asian bee. They have a very different way of brooding and living so that the asian bee and the mites could coexist. Not so with our bees

@@kamonreynolds Thanks for the reply.

@@kamonreynolds Damn China Mites!

Drone brood removal does help but you have to time it right and in my opinion you still need another control to go with it. It also takes alot of time. I do think it is a good idea if you have the time to do it!

I’ve culled sporadically with green drone frames. Planning an experiment next season. Will have a dedicated drone hive, set well away from others to reduce drift. One drone frame in each of 4-5 other hives; pull when capped, transfer frames of calm/productive colonies to drone hive, along with some nurse bees, freeze frames from more defensive hive(s). Thought is to get the varroa control benefit of drone culling while supplementing numbers of “good” drones in congregation areas. Should be able to treat varroa in drone hive more aggressively without concern over damaging queen or worker brood, while needing less treatment in production hives. May/June/July should suffice. No idea how many nurse bees will be required. Since drones stay close by and queens go further to mate, any improvement in queen mating is likely to initially benefit my neighbors, not myself; the good karma would theoretically kick in when my virgins mate with their drones in following years. Likely there will be unanticipated kinks. Hope to do a series of RU-vid vids; but I know ZERO about doing that at present.

Treatments with an organic acid, when used properly, are very effective when combined with the principles of Integrated Pest Management.

Hey Paul, sharing videos on RU-vid is easy. I learn something new from everyone I watch, so you definitely need to post videos, lol. All you have to do, is make a video and when you're done, tap on your video and select the share icon, then it gives you the option to share via message, RU-vid, etc... Select RU-vid and wait a few seconds, it will ask you for a title and description, when you're done, hit the blue arrow to send it. You can also do this with existing video.

Paul, that sounds like it's going to be a great experiment. Have you thought about also using some Martha Carpenter Mite Maulers or Purdue Ankle Biters in your experiment? You can get them from Jason Bragg at New River Honey Bees in West Virginia. You're right, drone karma definitely comes back. Isn't beekeeping exciting!

Thankfully no!

Feed them probiotics to help boost their gut health and immunity - Super DFM honeybee

Not in the US, Supers are supposed to be removed.

@@ToBeeOrNotToBeHoney Thanks, was what i was thinking appreciate the confirmation

not sure what you are getting at here. You suggesting water kills Varroa?

@@hyfy-tr2jy Lol, no, I'm just making a point. C2H2O4 is as harmless as H2O to the bees, when used properly, but we have to use protection because it is an acid.

I spent a decade cleaning and staining log homes and decks. I used C2H204 by the 5 gallon buckets, crystal form. I wore a respirator and full body protection. It will burn your lungs and skin, even dilluted in H2O. I learned that the hard way.

@@buildingwithtrees2258 That's true! You have to wear protection. Maybe I should delete this post because someone might think they don't need protection?

@@danskisbees7348 calm down lol. Anyone dumb enough to use this without a respirator and gloves will learn a quick lesson...and hopefully not a fatal one!

107F for 2.5 hours. in the brood chambers kills varroa in capped brood and out. with 85% effectiveness. 118F is their upper limit.

@@privatebubba8876 Man is that warm. How do the bees fair with this?

@@privatebubba8876 thanks for the info!

@@beebob1279 not well over a long period of time just like with extended periods of rain, they stop working at around 100 F. We are usually in the mid 90's with 90% humidity this time of year and the temperature in top of my hives reach about 105 daily but the brood box is at 92 F. The girls look like a bucket brigade bringing water from the fish pond fountain to the hive to keep the brood chamber cool.

@@lennelonge2626 There used to be a company that would come to your apiary and do this procedure and they were franchising the system but I haven't seen anything on it since. I think it was a fairly expensive job. It may well still be on youtube

They have been average nothing to really write home about.

Kamon Reynolds - Tennessee's Bees thanks

If you get a chance raise a few it is amazing how good your own queens do and then you really can pick from the ones that survive, thrive, and make that liquid gold.

ehh... I'm using the oxalic acid sold as wood bleach at a well known home Improvement store.

Hey hyfy! I don't have any experience and don't know much about them and that why I left them out of the talk. I really hope to get one before next season

I have no practical experience so I am reluctant to say much about something I know very little about. I certainly would like to try one.

I have never tried it. I doubt it works but who knows. Ultimately don the fatbeeman doesn't use it for more than show and tell on his videos. He restocks his yard with commercial packages each year and sells them as nucs when they are big enough. What he attempts to overwinter is what he doesn't sell. This is not my opinion this is something I know for a fact and others like our state apiarist can and will verify.

Be careful with essential oils. They aren't approved. Your Fat Bee Man has used a lot of things that weren't approved in the past. Follow your state's rules for what can be used for your colonies instead of this other stuff. Fat Bee Man has some interesting hive management strategies which can help, but be careful with un-approved mite controls.

Thank you for the information

It may seem like the cheapest route for the new beekeeper, but then you realize that it isn't as effective as you thought. Then you end up buying a vaporizer anyway. I recommend the wand vaporizer from Mann Lake if you only have a few hives. It does take longer, but it works.

More is needed but too much can be a problem. I will have a video on this in the future

He's mentioned this before and says he cant vouch for it. I've done it and it works. You need to time it well since mites under capped brood are safe. Further, the fogger clogs up over time...

you and me both!

OAV can be done anytime. It works best when it warm enough the cluster isn't super tight. I prefer once every 4 days for 5 rounds

Just alcohol checked a hive that had been through 3 treatments of Oxalic acid, and the check came out with 7.4 % mite infestation. Guess I'd better do 2 more treatments. Very curious because I did mite counts of 24 & 48 hours after each treatment and that hive did not show high counts of dead mites after any of the 3 treatments. Now I'm really worried!!@@kamonreynolds

Hey Garry, Here is the direct link to order the Pro Vap 110. amzn.to/2KFVWn5

In my experience it did not get me sufficient kill over the treatment period. I want to do more tests on this in the future though. With any of these products an alcohol wash after the fact shows you if it really did drop the mites back. Using another treatment like OAV may work terrific in conjunction with the hopguard

@@kamonreynolds thanks! I am trying it for the first time on a feral Hive I forced out of a dead tree a couple months ago. Their mite load was high enough to warrant treatment. Unfortunately, just checked them today and the queen is gone! Not sure if she left with a mini swarm or what, but I suspect the application of the Hop guard may have had something to do with her leaving.

Sure can

Hi Linda, It is not too late. I like to do 2 treatments in winter in December but January is a good time also.

@@kamonreynolds thank you!!! I have a hummingbird that stayed all winter and I have a couple feeders out for him. On the nice days my bees have been visiting them, I think they sure doing good so far. Want to get those mites.

Better to get a vaporizer. Works much much better and even a vaporizer only kills for 2-3 days tops. Which means you need a 7 treatment minimum in a 21 day cycle of brood

@@kamonreynolds Great thank you for your quick response. Keep up the good work.

I have used OA dribble and if the correct dosage is used and especially if the mites are very exposed it is extremely lethal to the mites. Just don't over apply

do DMF & DMPF break down into anything further with time? and what are the health effects of the two compounds? i have looked and can't find these answers

​@@ConManCouch they are very bad for bees and queen bee especially. The best way is to read scientifical studies, there is plenty of it. DMF is stable and you can find it in honey (Shroeder, et al 2004). "By the year 2003, commercial hives were already so contaminated by amitraz, that there was concern about varroa having developed resistance . Later in the decade, Mullin (2010) detected DMPF in fully 60% of beeswax samples and 31% of beebread samples. Even more recently, DMPF was the third most common pesticide residue in the 451 samples of beebread analyzed by the USDA National Survey from 2010 through January 2014 -present in 23% of samples, led only by the other miticides fluvalinate and coumaphos"

What treatment? Did the hive survive?

It looks really cool! But, they're just using the fogger method which is sporadic at best with no exact dosing no matter the concentration of the solution. Squirt twice per deep, squirt squirt, did it vaporize, did it all go in? I don't know, let me give them another squirt or two. There's also no way you can do a 100 hives in 25 minutes as advertised, especially if you're leaving them sealed for 10 minutes like you're supposed too. I suppose that you could have someone following behind you. Definitely better than nothing.

@@danskisbees7348 "Sporadic at best". Roger!

Bill, I'm glad that what you are doing is working for you, that's what matters.. I used to use the Black Flag fogger, now I use the Mann Lake wand vaporizer. This is just my opinion after using both. It definitely takes a lot longer, but it's exact. If you have a lot of hives and have power, the Provap 110 is the way to go.

What essential is do you use, for what, and how do you use them?

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Hi Kay, Some place cardboard between the brood boxes and the honey supers so no vapor gets in the supers