# Apivar



## Vance G (Jan 6, 2011)

I hope the apivar is not old out of date and lost its effectiveness. I would ask the benefactor how old the treatment is. I would not pull it but if you have Oxalic vaporizer capability I would give them three treatments starting yesterday. Reduce the entrance and feed internally with a baggie feeder or a jar feeder over the inner cover hole. Get those mites under control and maybe you can save the hive, but if not, you got a treasure of drawn comb!


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## Pinchecharlie (May 14, 2014)

I would check apivars instruction sheet too that sounds like more strips than I've heard before but I have never used it either. There does seem to be a rather significant brood break around treatments for me but like I said I don't use apivar . I just checked the apivar directions and they recommend a strip per brood box. I don't know if this has any relevance but if there is to much that might cause problems? I've used maqs on my hives with much success and will be using again at the end of the month. It stinks and the bees are not excited about it but it is over in a few days , safe to use with honey supers on and has really worked well to get rid of the mites. hope it all works out.


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## Amasa (May 11, 2015)

Apiculture has a FAQ sheet on checking for Apivar resistance which is already occurring in some parts of the province. My numbers might be a bit off (so DO check the product monograph) but IIRC it's one strip per five frames for 42 days. If at the end of the 42 days the mite counts are still on the high side you can move the strips to new spots in the hive and leave them in for a further 14 days. It's supposed to work by getting the bees to walk on the strips. They're not supposed to be used when honey supers are on and there is a waiting period before you can put supers on after using it, or if the temperatures get on the high side though I don't ever remember Nelson getting over 30 in the summer. (I miss the thunderstorms) 

I started to use it on the sick nuc I had. I can't tell you how it turned out since the bees were taken away and I have mite free bees for now, but I'll probably try it on the new bees this winter.


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## canadian bee (Jun 27, 2015)

Thanks for all the advice. My directions say the same on the apivar, one per five frames. I think I will give them the Oxalic acid right away. And hope for the best.


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## RayMarler (Jun 18, 2008)

If you already have a lot of bees with DWV then even with treatments, the hive will take a long time to recover. There are now DWV and other viruses in the hive, the treatments will get rid of mites, but the virus infections will take awhile to go away. Apivar has worked great for me, but it's a long (6-8 weeks) slower treatment. OAV is a faster flash treatment that will help knock down the adult mite numbers on adult bees much more quickly. The Apivar will then help ongoing for emerging mites as bees emerge.


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## Andrew Dewey (Aug 23, 2005)

Most of the time any mite treatment does not immediately resolve issues like DWV. You'll need to wait for the older bees to die off and be replaced by healthy young ones.


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## beepro (Dec 31, 2012)

Is the Summer dearth a good time to apply OA? Definitely a yes. Knock down those mites at their
highest in population. 
Will it sufficiently knock down the population so as to get the colony to the year end treatment?
Not sure when is your year end treatment but with succession of young bees that emerged the mites will
be crawling on the outside again. The strategy is to treat in August and another in October. Another one will help too
in the early Spring time if the mites are there. Some use Apivar for the long term effect than the OAV which is
the short term solution. 
How many near-dearth applications are needed and at what frequency if this is recommended? I will time the
emergence of the new bees. It seems that at the 3rd weeks of the month after they hatched then this is the most
effective time to treat them. Because the new bees that emerged will have the free running mites on them. So once
in August and once in September when the new bees hatched on a 2 cycle frequency should help them tremendously. 
I know it won't kill mites in capped brood. How harmful is it to the brood? None at all.


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## Coach62 (Mar 26, 2016)

I know this is an older thread, but update?? I'm curious, did you save the colony? Did you have to use OA to save it?


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## beepro (Dec 31, 2012)

I don't see why not when he/she can use the oav to save the other hive.
Don't think there is much of a difference from saving one hive to the next.


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## Coach62 (Mar 26, 2016)

The thread is from last June, I was just wondering if he/she was able to save the hive, and if the emergency OA treatment was successful.


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## canadian bee (Jun 27, 2015)

I lost both hives last winter. I think it was a combination of the mites and the person who sold me the hive robbing all the honey before giving it to me. I fed like crazy but wasn't enough. The sick hive ended up getting my good hive sick again. On the plus side I ended up with 40 frames of drawn comb, 4 completely packed with capped honey and many others with pollen and honey to start my packages of this year. I decided to buy packs from New Zealand which is maybe a gamble but at least Im starting mite free this time. Im going to do things slightly different this year. Bother them less, use only OAV first sign of mites, and not be to eager to put a second deep to quick. Hopefully this winter I can save at least one of these hives. Bees are expensive


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## beepro (Dec 31, 2012)

Yes, I know bees are expensive here too.
I know a place to put out swarm traps for them.
But is too lazy to do so since I have my growing apiary to tend to now.
Hopefully your bees can grow large enough for you to make some splits and
overwinter them using Michael Palmer's nuc method. It is on the you tube channel of a
sustainable apiary. I follow his nuc method too.


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## Delta Bay (Dec 4, 2009)

canadian bee said:


> I decided to buy packs from New Zealand which is maybe a gamble but at least Im starting mite free this time.


I hope you don't think they are mite free. When you buy these packages they come with NZ mites, Some years more than others.


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