Mites still dying

[Les]

I cannot believe how infested my hives are with varroa mites!! :\'(

[efmesch]

What treatment did you give them?

[apisbees]

I believe she is using MAQS It has been a week so as I understand all the mites or most of the mites should already be dead. What you should be seeing is the dead mites that are being removed from the cells alter the brood emerges. This will happen for the 15 days that it will take for all the capped drone brood to emerge.

[LazyBkpr]

Looks like treatment was a GOOD idea!!!

[Les]

Efmesch ..... Formic Acid

Lazy.....I would say so.  Good thing the population of these hives was booming.  If they were weak hives, I fear they would struggle thru winter.

[Lburou]

Les, that is a lot of mites!  You did the right thing. 

[tecumseh]

are MAQS a one treatment solution to mites?  ie do people apply this more than once?

[Les]

I understand that you can treat in the Spring and then in August/September.....if your mite counts are too high.  Formic acid is supposed to also get to the mites that are in sealed cells, other treatments do not penetrate the cells.  The bees populations are starting decline now whereas the mite population is expanding.

[apisbees]

Yes they are a 1 treatment, It has been approved for use when the honey supers are on, and has been proven effective with the extra space. For normal evaporation of formic to work the bees need to be confined down to the cluster space of the bees for the treatment to be effective so treatments were often delayed till after the honey supers were removed for extraction. The gel that holds the formic to allow it to slowly be released also allow the formic to enter the brood cells thru the cappings killing the mites that are in the cells. after a week whats left of the gel packs can be disposed of or they can be left in the hive and the bees will eventually remove them.