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Author Topic: How are your mite loads this summer?  (Read 8604 times)

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Offline Chip Euliss

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How are your mite loads this summer?
« on: June 19, 2016, 05:58:00 pm »
I've been spot checking since I treated with formic acid (MAQS) this spring and haven't found a single mite but I did get a bit of brood burn but no lost queens to my knowledge.  Just got my report from the apiary inspector from a sample of 5% of my hives--they didn't find any mites either.  Happy Days!  I plan to check them again when I pull honey in late August/September.  My next treatment will be OAV in fall/winter here and then again in California in January.  Nice to not see the red devils.  Wish I could say the same for all the wood ticks this year :laugh: :laugh:
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Offline Perry

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Re: How are your mite loads this summer?
« Reply #1 on: June 19, 2016, 07:54:31 pm »
I've got a few in some of my hives, but then I don't treat in the spring. I will monitor and treat if needed the first week of September.
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Offline Jen

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Re: How are your mite loads this summer?
« Reply #2 on: June 19, 2016, 09:40:24 pm »
So far so good here  :)  This year we have had such a crazy long spring with highs up to 100 degrees than plumets down to 45 degrees. A lot of breaks in brood. I think that's why ~
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Offline apisbees

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Re: How are your mite loads this summer?
« Reply #3 on: June 19, 2016, 09:57:10 pm »
Jen Swarms and splitting off nucs will cause more longer brood breaks. The bees store food for cold rainy days and regulate the hive temp 24/7 It takes more than a couple of weeks to get the bees to let up on brood production in the spring. Swarming that happened 2 months ago you are seeing the effects of it now. The hive is about where they were just after they swarmed.
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Offline Jen

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Re: How are your mite loads this summer?
« Reply #4 on: June 19, 2016, 10:37:21 pm »
I'm sure not complaining  ;) 8)
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Offline Lburou

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Re: How are your mite loads this summer?
« Reply #5 on: June 20, 2016, 12:55:19 pm »
That is a great report Chip!  I suspect that the future will be blazed by this two punch attack against varroa.  Have you ever used the formic as a "flash" treatment instead of the MAQS?
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Offline Chip Euliss

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Re: How are your mite loads this summer?
« Reply #6 on: June 20, 2016, 04:54:35 pm »
Quote from: Lburou on June 20, 2016, 12:55:19 pm
That is a great report Chip!  I suspect that the future will be blazed by this two punch attack against varroa.  Have you ever used the formic as a "flash" treatment instead of the MAQS?

Thanks.  I haven't but I'd like to hear the details Lee.  This was the first time I used formic in any form.  David VanderDussen stopped by the house last summer and talked me into giving it a try.  I used it when it was cooler than recommended and probably didn't vent as well as I should but it worked well.  I did burn more brood than I'd hoped but I had no noticeable queen loss.  I decided to try it as a spring treatment since I planned to replace all my queens this spring anyway.  This fall after the honey pull, I plan back-to-back OAV treatments with my new "gun" spaced at weekly intervals and again in January, if needed.  It just occurred to me that I should have posted this in the disease/parasite forum.  Maybe one of our mods could get me rerouted?
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Chip

Offline CBT

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Re: How are your mite loads this summer?
« Reply #7 on: June 20, 2016, 09:35:30 pm »
Show us your gun Chip.  ;D Hope you found a great deal.
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Offline riverbee

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Re: How are your mite loads this summer?
« Reply #8 on: June 21, 2016, 01:45:52 am »
"It just occurred to me that I should have posted this in the disease/parasite forum.  Maybe one of our mods could get me rerouted?"

done chip, apis moved it there! 

i keep russkie bees, they are pretty good for being mite free and/or minimal mites, BUT  i am always 'scouting' for those little red devil buggers.  i have one of 5 i am monitoring for mites. spotted a mite on the back of a bee a week ago, went digging into the brood frames and drone brood.   the other 4, mite free for now. 
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Offline Chip Euliss

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Re: How are your mite loads this summer?
« Reply #9 on: June 21, 2016, 09:15:46 am »
Quote from: CBT on June 20, 2016, 09:35:30 pm
Show us your gun Chip.  ;D Hope you found a great deal.

It's one of these:  http://www.vmvaporizer.com/

Not inexpensive but it sure puts the vapor out and zaps the mites.  I will use it mostly when all the bees are staged in my pasture in the fall or in the holding yard in California.  As the video shows, it is a quick method.
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Chip

Offline Chip Euliss

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Re: How are your mite loads this summer?
« Reply #10 on: June 21, 2016, 09:21:32 am »
Thanks Apis.  River, do the Russians groom the mites off or are they just resistant to the diseases the mites transmit?  I've always liked the concept but I also like the genetic diversity of drones available to breed queens when emergency or when they supersede failing queens.  I bought a 100 of them a few years ago and I really liked the way they organized themselves for winter.
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Offline tecumseh

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Re: How are your mite loads this summer?
« Reply #11 on: June 30, 2016, 07:03:10 am »
I don't really know and to be quite truthful once I decided to go the no treatment route mites are the last thing on my to do list. 

This year I do plan for a small shift in STRATEGY in that I am hoping (if I have the time) to split my numbers based on varroa count and treat one half and not treat the others < I am considering a new varroa treatment but definitely plan to stay away from true insecticides..  Like lots of debates quite often a choice is stated as this or that and quite often I wonder 'why not both'.
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Offline Chip Euliss

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Re: How are your mite loads this summer?
« Reply #12 on: June 30, 2016, 08:31:06 am »
Guess I don't know as much about Russians and other resistant bees as I would like.  Anybody know if there is there any literature on their behavior (grooming or hygienic) or physiological characteristics (e.g., a better immune system) that may help me understand Russians better?  Folks breeding for hygienic behavior seem more concerned with the trait than the race of bee.  I liked the Russians I had a few years ago except when I was looking for the queens on dark comb :)   I'll be curious to see what you learn Tec.

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Chip

Offline Lburou

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Re: How are your mite loads this summer?
« Reply #13 on: June 30, 2016, 09:12:20 am »
Quote from: tecumseh on June 30, 2016, 07:03:10 am
.... I am considering a new varroa treatment...
Tec, you left me hanging with that remark, care to elucidate us on your "new" treatment?  :-)
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Lee_Burough

Offline riverbee

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Re: How are your mite loads this summer?
« Reply #14 on: July 01, 2016, 12:56:52 am »
"River, do the Russians groom the mites off or are they just resistant to the diseases the mites transmit?  I've always liked the concept but I also like the genetic diversity of drones available to breed queens when emergency or when they supersede failing queens.  I bought a 100 of them a few years ago and I really liked the way they organized themselves for winter."

chip, yes, both.. this what i have seen them do......
1. very little mite problems
2. they actually do groom the mites off, and i have seen them chewing them or trying to chew them off sister bees
2. i have seen brood with mites on get carried out the front door.
3. diseases.......very resistant. i don't have the viruses others on the forum report, or from other keeps.
4. wintering; this is where they excel;  very conservative on stores, overwinter in a smaller cluster you think would never make it, and with stores left in the hive. slow to build up in the spring, but when they do, they will explode, and catch up to or exceed other lines of bees.

i have been treatment free for the most part. i have treated maybe two or three times in 15 years? (using one treatment of apiguard), but haven't treated for some time now.

the queens sometimes are hard to find, (a little darker) and on darker comb but guess i have become accustomed to it?

i do have some literature chip, let me look for it, and i will post it for you.
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Offline Chip Euliss

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Re: How are your mite loads this summer?
« Reply #15 on: July 01, 2016, 08:04:49 am »
Terrific.  I look forward to learning more about the Russian bees.
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