It's a battle dealing with these Varroa Mites.
I used formic acid last year but going into fall I wasn't happy that the mites were under under control.
[A strong hive in spring - the old mite pad from fall still on the top bars].
I've used Miteaway Quick Strips - called MAQ's. These formic acid gel packs can be placed on a hive while honey supers are on. This is such a relief to beekeeping.
So I planned to treat the hives in mid July to try to get some control over them.
The hard decision is whether to go gangbusters with 2 pads or to do a softer treatment with 1 pad. One pad is called a knockdown and two is a knockout.
The problem is that beekeepers find too much brood are killed and queen deaths occur a lot when using 2 pads.
I've used just one but found the treatment too soft. The best year I had is when I used 1 paid but did the treatment 3 times - spring, summer and fall.
It's a 7 day treatment and the pad is biodegradable and will be chewed up by the bees so it doesn't have to be removed. I usually remove it well after the 7 days.
This year I did 1 1/2 pads in spring and plan to also treat mid summer and fall. The goal is to get more serious to take down the mites.
4 comments:
Hi Barbara-
Have you ever used drone comb as a "bait" for the mites? We use in Minnesota and get very good results when doing it 2 consecutive times.
http://www.ontariobee.com/sites/ontariobee.com/files/document/Drone-Brood-Removal-for-the-Management-of-Varroa-Mites.pdf
MA Wannarka, thanks for your comment. I do have the drone combs and I've been looking at a 2 queen system that uses drone comb - you can get more info on it at http://thebeejournal.blogspot.ca/2015/03/a-two-queen-system-tower-colonies-for.html. It's time consuming but a very effective method.
Last year I treated several colonies, 6 in all, using two pads of MAQs per colony. None of them lost their queen, they all resumed great brood patterns and all had a mid 95% knockdown of mites.
Here's my journal of
what I saw using MAQs
Christopher, I'm so glad to hear the 2 mite pads were successful for you. Did you put them on a single deep or were there more boxes?
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