# Frequency of Mite Treatments



## Gypsi (Mar 27, 2011)

I monitor mites hardly at all, screen bottom boards let them drop off. I watch for wing deformities in spring and summer and if none I don't do a mite count until fall. I treat with OAV, not a week apart, more like a couple of weeks, and with my wrist surgery, well they were treated december 14th, and I am going out to treat in a few minutes for treatment 2. 

but if you want VSH bees, or VSH traits, I think you have to let them develop. If you have viruses I'd be treating or creating an artificial brood break a lot more often than once a year.


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## zhiv9 (Aug 3, 2012)

I looked back through my records and this season I checked for mites:

1x in late May
1x in late June
1x in early August
1x in early September
1x in late September
2x in October

For treatment I applied 5 single strips of MAQS:

1 late May
1 mid-June
1 early August
1 mid-August
1 early September

I then followed up with OAV or OA dribble.

I missed applying one of the MAQS strips to one yard in early September and lost half of the hives in that yard by the time I wrapped them in early November.

Mites were a real PITA this year. I think due to the longer brood and mite rearing season we had as a result of mild winter.


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## jvalentour (Sep 4, 2014)

I only have 30 hives, so I don't have near the work you do. But to answer your question, I previously treated (OAV) 4 times in 21 days beginning in October or November, usually late November. Afterwards I treat monthly until January ends. I only monitor not test. I look for evidence of virus such as crawlers and wing deformities. In 2017 I plan to start treating earlier to get the bees healthier into winter, the 4/21 treatment in late fall just didn't seem good enough. I'll try to treat observed virus hives individually and the entire apiary beginning in August/September. That would be roughly 7 treatments per year, minimum. If all goes as planned.

Having said that I am purchasing a vaporizer that is quicker than the spoon type I have been using.


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## JSL (Sep 22, 2007)

Mark,

The commercial beekeepers represented were treating based on thresholds. Some of the mite issues were assumed to be actual mite growth within the colony and some was assumed to be through mite immigration. Regardless of how the mites get into the colonies, the approach at this time is to knock them back. The treatments shared were quite variable based on the operations and time of year. The key is still keeping mite levels down. 3% mite levels seems to be the tossed around number, some as low as 1%, some higher, but to each their own.


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## camero7 (Sep 21, 2009)

As I posted here I'm experiencing major losses too. About 35% so far and I don't expect many to make it to spring. Bee-L is reporting some are experiencing 70% losses on the east coast. Some of my customers have already been wiped out. I checked for mites 3X this year [alcohol wash] all were above threshold. I treated with different treatments but mites kept coming on. Going to try Randy's glycerine/oxalic shop towels next spring on the survivors, then amitraz in the fall.


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## Lauri (Feb 1, 2012)

Is it not true many commercials, including you Mark, overwinter your bees in a warmer climate? 

Where I am, (Washington State)I get a reliable broodless period early winter and my treatments are effective, not to mention my bees clean themselves up pretty well too when they are broodless. There are a lot of reason's I am able to get away with less treatments than most, this is just one of those reasons. 

Would wintering your bees in a colder climate be an option? Would getting away from full blown Italian strains be an issue? 

I'll be honest, I don't know how folks do it in warm climates when brood is present pretty much year round. Especially when they are migratory with higher reinfestation exposures.


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## JSL (Sep 22, 2007)

I think it will be a rough winter. It was all put in motion last winter with mild temps. Bees were big and so were mite populations. It was a good season for many and so mite levels marched right along. It will take a little time to get things back in check.


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## clyderoad (Jun 10, 2012)

How many times a year do you check mite levels? mostly 4 times, a few years 5. I uncap drone brood.

"four to eight treatments per year"? mostly 2 times per year in August and late November. Occasionally I've had to treat 3 times either in January after a long warm fall when the bees were still brooding after Thanksgiving or after uncapping the first drones of the spring season and finding mite levels I was not comfortable seeing in addition to the standard August and November treatments mentioned. Only in 2 years have I had to treat 4 times and that's when the bees were brooding through Thanksgiving and also had brood during a warm winter in late January during treatment so I treated again after checking the drone brood in spring (early April).

I use MAQS in August and mainly Oxalic vapor in November. Sometimes for the November treatment I OA dribble but don't like to. The January treatment if needed is usually Oaxalic vapor before brooding 1x. The spring treatment after finding mites in drone brood is Oxalic vapor 4 or 5x 5 days apart on production hives. I've used Apivar in the spring on resource hives some years to save time.

This is what I've been doing on the Island with a stationary operation. I have had good results and I'm not recommending you do it or that it's even the right thing to do, just that for me it works. I hope you can take something helpful from it.


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

zhiv9 said:


> I looked back through my records and this season I checked for mites:
> 
> 1x in late May
> 1x in late June
> ...


 No checking on mite loads after the treatment to see if it worked?


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Lauri said:


> Is it not true many commercials, including you Mark, overwinter your bees in a warmer climate?
> 
> Would wintering your bees in a colder climate be an option? Would getting away from full blown Italian strains be an issue?


 Yes, I do Winter in SC, 1,000 miles south of here. Wintering i the south has been my strategy to replace losses before pollination.

I'm planning on investing some money in some nonItalian strains. heh heh


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## mbevanz (Jul 23, 2012)

For us its a Minimum of 3 treatments with amitraz.
I think there is hope with oxalic dissolved in glycerine. 
Thinking 2 amitraz treatments with a "dry" paper towel with the oxalic mix in between.


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## jim lyon (Feb 19, 2006)

sqkcrk said:


> I monitor the mite levels in my hives very little. Not very often at all. How many times a year do you check mite levels? Eight to 12 times per year?
> "four to eight treatments per year"? Are commercial beekeepers really treating their hives as many as 8 times per year? Can anyone tell me when?
> 
> 
> ...


We always treat twice in the late summer to early fall time frames and sometimes, but not always, in the spring. Its really the only time its practical for our operation. We do some spot mite checks ahead of any treatments to give us a idea of what we are dealing with and whether they are getting close to reaching "critical mass". 
I'm going to guess that you probably had poor mite kills because of less than ideal treating weather and/or poor kills and population "creep" from previous years. Personally what Kim is relating sounds a little bit crazy to me, though, perhaps if you're fogging and trying to get levels down in tall, heavily populated mid summer hives, it's probably going to take a lot of treatments.


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## wildbranch2007 (Dec 3, 2008)

Mark what viruses did they list, we are losing many hives around here that have low mite counts, pretty sure it's a virus.


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## JSL (Sep 22, 2007)

jim lyon said:


> Personally what Kim is relating sounds a little bit crazy to me, though, perhaps if you're fogging and trying to get levels down in tall, heavily populated mid summer hives, it's probably going to take a lot of treatments.


Jim, these were well respected commercials sharing their treatment regiments from the last year. I don't recall fogging being a big part of the treatments. Pretty scary to see.


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

wildbranch2007 said:


> Mark what viruses did they list, we are losing many hives around here that have low mite counts, pretty sure it's a virus.


 I don't have that report at hand. But I think there were a couple of different Viruses detected. DWV was observed. I think there was some IAPV too. I'll try tom find the report and let you know.


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## Lauri (Feb 1, 2012)

sqkcrk said:


> I'm planning on investing some money in some nonItalian strains. heh heh


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## zhiv9 (Aug 3, 2012)

sqkcrk said:


> No checking on mite loads after the treatment to see if it worked?


I generally did follow up checks. Here would be the rough combined schedule of checks/treatments:

Late May - Mite check
2 1 strip MAQS treatments 10-14 days apart
Late June - follow up mite check
Early August - mite check
1 2 strip MAQS treament or 2 1-strip treatments 10-14 days apart depending on temperatures
Early September - follow up mite check
1 1 strip MAQS treatment
Late September - follow up mite check
OAV
October follow up mite check
OA dribble


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

What did your rechecks tell you?


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## zhiv9 (Aug 3, 2012)

sqkcrk said:


> What did your rechecks tell you?


That a 1 strip MAQs treatment will knock mites back enough to hold mite levels for a couple of weeks, but not a lot more than that. That OAV isn't very effective if there is any brood present. That fall mite levels can get quite high even after knocking them back in August and September.

Here are numbers for 1 yard: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ettImJETpQuzfl1oeWHLi7DeB6wdbp-U7Yb86tmXoN4/edit?usp=sharing


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## jean-marc (Jan 13, 2005)

This post just points to the high level of difficulty in overcoming a high mite load. Last season I treated some in the late spring with formic acid MAQS. Some got the formic in late summer, others got thymol during that same time period. The last group got 5 treatments of oxalic vapor at 4-5 day intervals. In late october early November everybody got 3 treaments of oxalic vapour. I am pretty sure now that 2 treatments when they are broodless does the job.

We are hyper vigilant now with doing varroa sampling. In the past I got burned pretty bad on 2 occasions. We are making sure there is no third time.

I think the strategy of hitting varroa at different times of the year is good. We don't have to kill themall in one shot. We just have to keep the levels low enough such that we do not get a huge spike come fall or that the winter bees are damaged. It sure seems like it takes a lot of attention/energy and resources to keep them below the economic threshold. If mites get out of hand then it can take a couple or 3 years to recover financially from the event. 

I would suggest to you Mark to keep the bees home as long as possible to make sure they are broodless. Treat with oxalic before making the run south. Make some efforts to monitor mites, so that if a wreck is going to happen you see it coming.

Jean-Marc


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Jean-Marc,
The bees have been south since November.


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## larrypeterson (Aug 22, 2015)

Just wondering,

Does anyone know whether there is any advantage to performing the 5 day tx times 6 weak treatment to completely drive the mite count down compared to a 3 tx 7 day interval only when needed? I have wondered about just "knocking down the levels when indicated (PRN)" with the notion that the "law of diminishing returns" is good enough. In other words, is there any real value of totally removing the mite population as compared to just "managing" the mite load?

Remember, I am just wondering, this is not a "hanging offence" just wondering. I wish you well...LP


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## jean-marc (Jan 13, 2005)

Manage the mite load is apparently the current thinking. Keep them under 1%. So in a fairly populous hive of 40 000 bees that means 400 varroa or less. Apparently anything above that and the viruses can do all kinds of harm to the colony. Randy Oliver wrote something about this awhile back.

Jean-Marc


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## Fusion_power (Jan 14, 2005)

The consistent issue showing up in this thread is horizontal transfer of mites. Treatments are more effective if all beekeepers in an area treat on a similar schedule.

I'm not seeing any problems with mites in my bees. I do have higher than normal numbers of hive beetles which is a major caution for spring. There are a couple of hives that have low numbers of beetles, one of which is also a candidate for queen rearing this spring based on honey production last year.

Would you be more likely to consider mite resistant genetics given the apparently increasing difficulty of controlling mites?


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## beepro (Dec 31, 2012)

larrypeterson said:


> Just wondering,
> 
> ....In other words, is there any real value of totally removing the mite population as compared to just "managing" the mite load?.... just wondering. I wish you well...LP



While you're wondering, I've been tracking and managing the mites here 2 seasons already. You have to know your mite level at any given time all year long. This will prevent a hive crash later on and at the same time keep some mites in there so that the foreign mites cannot reestablished themselves in your colonies. Who knows if another mite strain is more deadly than the present. 
Mark, if I'm in your situation I would requeened them all with the mite fighting bees be it the gray or yellow bees. I only keep the compatible genes yellow bees with mite fighting ability. Hook up with a reputable queen producer to get those for your operation. We now have the mite biting and mite mauling bees. Get those to establish your own mite resistant operation. Mix them up and let the resistant genetics combine on queen rearing days. All summer long I did not treat this year. Took out the small patches of cap broods during the winter time along with them the mites also. You have to get the mites on every bees emergence cycle in order to keep them under control!


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