# moderate mite levels - treatment during unusually warm spell



## Cadence (Mar 31, 2014)

Beekeeping under two years. Have 4 hives in central Alabama. Been feeding 2:1 syrup as they take it. They are bringing in some pollen. I put mite boards under hives for 3 1/2 days during exceptionally heavy rains. 
Hive 1 averaged 4 mites per day
Hive 2 averaged 7 mites per day
Hive 3 averaged 9 mites per day
Hive 4 averaged 20 mites per day
I had treated Hives 1 & 2 with apiguard trays in September, and hives 3 & 4 with Apivar strips at the same time.

We're forecast to have temps in the 70°'s for the next 5 days with some rain. I have Apiguard trays still in supply. But what should I treat the with this time of year? The nights are going to start getting cool to cold after 5 days. I've never put powdered sugar on bees. Don't know if this would be a good choice or not?

Thanks for your advice.


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## SouthTexasJohn (Mar 16, 2015)

Everybody uses their own threshold for mites. Mine is 5. Treatment or not is your choice. I use oav when I have to. Powdered sugar is not good in my neck of the wood a I do believe that it does have an up side but there are waaaaaay too many ants here to use it. 
I also run SBB on all of my hives which I believe helps a little.

John


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## Rusty Hills Farm (Mar 24, 2010)

Ditto the PS. Ants up the wazoo! If you don't have the equipment for OAV, do a dribble. 

JMO

Rusty


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## enjambres (Jun 30, 2013)

Apiguard takes something like 30 to 42 days to complete so the weather over the next week or two is moot.

Apivar is applied up here in March when temps are probably as cold/colder than you'll ever get, so that's a possibility but you've already treated the one with the (currently ?) highest drop counts with that, so you may not want to do that again.

And it seems odd that Apivar _appears_ to have been less effective than Apiguard, which is exactly the opposite of what I would have expected. Unless your "Apivar" is actually ApiLife-Var (or is it Apivar-Life?) and thus a different kettle of fish than Apivar, i.e. the synthetic chemical, Amitraz. Giving products similar-sounding trade names out to be against the law!

Anyway, if you can, I would do as Rusty suggests and hit them with OA dribble if you are at all near your broodless period.

It also sounds to me as if the one with the high mite count may have been out robbing and picking up souvenirs. But it doesn't matter, because for practical purposes in my apiary if one hive meet a threshold (especially when only using drop counts) they all have met it and I treat them all. Unless there is some supervening reason such as hive that is actively re-queening, or has an unmated virgin. In those cases, I just delay that single one until things have settled down, and then I treat it too. But they all will get a treatment because my bees drift a lot so "spot" treatment is not effective for me.

I find it is really important to re-check with a sugar roll a few weeks after any treatment, and maintain weekly drop counts all year long and monthly sugar rolls on at least one hive to keep an eye on things. So mite build-ups don't sneak up me. (The powdered sugar roll for mite counting purposes is completely different, of course, than dusting with powdered sugar that supposedly offers some mite control.)

The other thing about drop counts is that they are affected by the number of bees (huge hives can have alarming numbers simply because they have more bees) and also by bee activity levels in cold weather. Bees coming out of a period of cold-weather clustering will sometimes have one-off high counts that aren't repeated. You could run the tests right away, again, and see what you get. 

As far as thresholds go - all of your numbers would be unacceptable to me up here in the frozen, broodless world of northern NY (notwithstanding the 72 F on Christmas Eve, which is not normal.) So I think local advice/opinion would be more useful to you.

Enj.


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## beemandan (Dec 5, 2005)

enjambres said:


> Apiguard takes something like 30 to 42 days to complete so the weather over the next week or two is moot.


Actually Apiguard is fourteen days per application. A single treatment in a time of reduced brooding with those forecast temps should knock down some mites.


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## Cadence (Mar 31, 2014)

SouthTexasJohn said:


> Everybody uses their own threshold for mites. Mine is 5. Treatment or not is your choice. I use oav when I have to. Powdered sugar is not good in my neck of the wood a I do believe that it does have an up side but there are waaaaaay too many ants here to use it.
> I also run SBB on all of my hives which I believe helps a little.
> 
> John


Sorry, what is SBB? 

Ants can be a problem here also, so powdered sugar would be out then.


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## Cadence (Mar 31, 2014)

Rusty Hills Farm said:


> Ditto the PS. Ants up the wazoo! If you don't have the equipment for OAV, do a dribble.
> 
> JMO
> 
> Rusty


Would you also recommend treating all 4 hives? I've never done the dribble before, though I have the supplies. I tried to figure out the mixture for just 4 hives, but need help with the amounts. I have a scale that measures in grams and grains.


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## Cadence (Mar 31, 2014)

I know those two treatments have way too similar names, but I am certain it was Apivar. I too thought that would give me great results.

I'm not sure about putting the Apiguard trays on again with cold weather coming in eventually.


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## Cadence (Mar 31, 2014)

Rusty Hills Farm said:


> Ditto the PS. Ants up the wazoo! If you don't have the equipment for OAV, do a dribble.
> 
> JMO
> 
> Rusty


I had printed out your dribble methods instructions a while back and just found them. 1.2 oz to 16 oz water/16 oz sugar.


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## SouthTexasJohn (Mar 16, 2015)

Cadence said:


> Sorry, what is SBB?
> 
> Screened Bottom Board. Some use them and some do not. I do. Mostly due to the extreme heat that I get down here. The varroa falling off of the bee and out of the hive is a bonus.........ok it is better than a bonus.


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