First Detection Of Mites

[Jen]

I didn't scavange too much for the mite check, I did find 2 pretty clearly. So I cleaned off the sticky board, re-aplied crisco shortening to the board and put it back under the hive. This way I don't have to sift thru two weeks of debris. I'll be checking the count every 3-4 days. When the count gets to 10-20 on the board I'll be treating with Mite-Away Quick Strips.

[LazyBkpr]

Maqs?  What happened to your OA?

[GLOCK]

JEN why not a alcohol wash much more accurate.
I'm sold on OAV worked  great last fall for me so I'm sticking with that plus I'm switching over to 4.9 cell and have most my hives brood boxes switched over hoping to help with VARROA.
 

[Jen]

Scott - Maqs?  What happened to your OA?

    Because OA doesn't penetrate the capped brood which is where most of the problem is. Formic Acid kills the mites in the capped brood and then the bees go in and clean the dead mites out.

    Formic Acid for warm weather when there is capped brood, especially drone brood.

    OA in the late fall and/or late winter when there is no capped brood. I did an OA in early January and got a 1,000 mite kill. Kept checking my sticky boards all thru the swarming, no mites.

    According to Apis, all of the swarming I had this spring prevented mites, I don't understand that, but I know I haven't had a single mite until now. So treatment is eminate. Then I continue to check the sticky boards all summer.

GLOCK - I don't have it in me to kill a cups worth of bees to get a mite count, and I don't like messing with the sugar shake. Not only that, for this year and all the swarming, I don't have the bee count to loose any at this time.

    I'll have to find the math equation that Randy Oliver suggested to use for sticky board mite count. Seems it's 10 mites on the sticky board, 100 in the hive, and that's not count within the capped brood. That's too many for me 

[GLOCK]

I have seen less then ten on a sticky board and 1000s drop after treatment . Just saying.
Strong mites don't always have a lot of dead falling.
This was from a hive that had hardly any on a sticky board count .
and this hive dropped 1000s by the time I was done treating I sure did make me think.
I mean that in the most nicest way.

[pistolpete]

mite counts have to take the colony strength and time of year into account.  A small colony with a drop of 10 mites/day is in serious trouble.  A strong colony with the same is doing just fine.   Also a high count in the spring is much more serious than a high count in the middle of summer. 

[Riverrat]

According to Apis, all of the swarming I had this spring prevented mites, I don't understand that,
 

When hives swarm there is a natural break in the brood cycle. When the brood cycle is broken there is no place for the mites to multiply

[GLOCK]

According to Apis, all of the swarming I had this spring prevented mites, I don't understand that,
 

When hives swarm there is a natural break in the brood cycle. When the brood cycle is broken there is no place for the mites to multiply

I have found 1 brood break is not enough for my hives I still have to treat .
I pull most my queens as soon as the flow starts to really get going and last year if I didn't treat I would of lost most my strong hives I had lots of mites .  And that's with fogging with FGMO  till JULY and in JULY I had mite bombs everywhere so I treated with OAV and hives did well I plan on treating 2 hives that I had pulled the queens out of about 19 days ago and see how much of a mite drop I get  since over wintering.

[LazyBkpr]

So.. treat the mites three times, a week apart. If you kill the adult mites in the open, there will be few if any to go back into the cells to mate.. treat again in a week to catch those emerging. Treat the following week for security.
   There is "almost" always some capped brood in a hive. When I treated this spring, the weather had been COLD, then suddenly it was WARM...  When I did my first inspection on a day that was finally 62 degrees... there was about half a frame of capped brood in most hives. Some had more, some had less.
   When i did splits I checked for mites, and did not find ANY, so I checked again using an either roll...  THEN I popped open about twenty drone cells...   all confirmed there were none to be found...   I am quite sure there are mites, but the level of infestation is low, telling me the treatment worked a month and a half ago.
   My greater concern when treating is that when they have no capped brood it is COLD, the bees are tightly clustered, and the vapor does not penetrate the cluster as well, so.... I treat three times when its warm enough that they are not clustered......   Just how I do it....    Working well so far!   

[Jen]

GLOCK - What is FGMO?

[GLOCK]

GLOCK - What is FGMO?

Food grade mineral oil. Waste of time.

[Jen]

GLOCK - "" last year if I didn't treat I would of lost most my strong hives I had lots of mites.""

Mee too! I can't remember what alerted me that there was a possible problem in my hive, then on 'the other forum' a member told me about treating for mites and I had better get my butt in gear. Gave myself a couple of days to research. By the time i got the Mite Away Quick Strips I was recognizing the deformed wings virus in my bees. All came out well, 2,000 mite kill ~ Phew! that was close

[Jen]

Scott - ""My greater concern when treating is that when they have no capped brood it is COLD, the bees are tightly clustered, and the vapor does not penetrate the cluster as well, so.... I treat three times when its warm enough that they are not clustered......   Just how I do it....    Working well so far.""

    I would have to have hubby help me do a three treatment such as yours, we've only used once. It would be a good excercise for me as well. This time of year it's hard to pin him down cause he works for the forest service. I'll talk to him about it.