# varroa treatments?



## Heavenly bees (Mar 27, 2011)

i was wondering what treatments do you commercial beekeepers give now for varroa


----------



## Heavenly bees (Mar 27, 2011)

anyone?


----------



## HONEYDEW (Mar 9, 2007)

You probably wont get a "real" answer from commercial keepers Because to keep bees alive on a large scale sometimes you have to do things a little off label :shhhh:


----------



## Heavenly bees (Mar 27, 2011)

yea thats what i thought but if someone can just lean me in the right direction that would be nice


----------



## BEES4U (Oct 10, 2007)

Here's one effective treatment:
http://www.dadant.com/Apiguard-Howtouse_003.htm


----------



## Tom G. Laury (May 24, 2008)

Amitraz is probably the most common material used for mite control, available in TacTic as used on swine and sheep.


----------



## Beeslave (Feb 6, 2009)

Formic Acid


----------



## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

As Tom said, Amitraz. Alternating w/ Formic to keep them on their toes, so to speak. 

And Drone brood smushing. Roland and his clan do that every 15 days, which must take some discipline, but he says it's effective and I believe him.


----------



## Roland (Dec 14, 2008)

What SQKCRK said about me - nothing chemical, but that IS kind of crazy.

Crazy Roland


----------



## acbz (Sep 8, 2009)

Roland, are you using a dedicated drone comb frame in each hive? If there are varroa inside the drone cells, and you are smushing the brood instead of removing or freezing it, whats to keep them from simply crawling out and re-nesting? Glad that it works for you.


----------



## BMAC (Jun 23, 2009)

So Amitraz does work well. Probably cheaper than formic. I have talked with other beeks that have compeltely killed colonies from improper use of Formic acid. I also do a style of drone comb but its more in the fashion of culling rather than using drone comb. I always leave 1 empty slot in the box. 99% of the time they will create drone comb and this time of year they fill them with drones. I simply cut out that slot and toss it in the woods when I play with them. I believe it works pretty well.


----------



## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Maybe they will, I don't know, but the cycle of varroa reproduction is interrupted enuf that apparently it has enuf of a beneficial effect.


----------



## Roland (Dec 14, 2008)

What SQKCRk said, don't know what smashing does, but it seems to work. If you use a 12-14 day cycle, the drone brood is all the same age, just capped. I imagine they don't get to start reproducing when we stop them by smashing. We check with that capping scrapper thing, and sometimes find one mote, are very rarely two.

Crazy ROland


----------



## chillardbee (May 26, 2005)

I could see how drone smashing would work. You might not harm the adult mites but the new generation of mites that would of otherwise hatched would be destroyed. there would also be enough adult mites that would be getting to the end of their life. a consistent turn over of drone smashing through the season could probably thwart the mites appreciably.


----------



## JohnK and Sheri (Nov 28, 2004)

The problem I see with drone culling is finding the time to do it with larger colony counts, short of hiring a crew dedicated to just this procedure.
Amitraz and/or Formic are by a large margin the most common and effective weapons of choice in this battle.
Sheri


----------



## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Sheri,
Are you going to use the MAQS? Or make your own pads? If you don't mind the question.


----------



## Roland (Dec 14, 2008)

Sheri is right. it takes time, but we are intensive anyway(looking at the frame), so the quick swipe of the hive tool is not going out of our way. Besides, a crazy person might figure that they would get more honey if there wher only a few drones in the hive.

P.S. (off topic) Sheri - I have you on the "hot seat"(scale hive). 4 frames of brood, 2 with cells,one down, one up, will run as a "tower of power" just to see what she will do. 

Crazy Roland


----------



## Heavenly bees (Mar 27, 2011)

i have heard of tacktic they soak dry wall shims that are cut to length and slip it in the entrance i dont know the proportions of tacktic to what they mix it with, does any body know ?


----------



## Barry (Dec 28, 1999)

I don't know, but we're not here to promote off label use of pesticides.


----------



## Keith Jarrett (Dec 10, 2006)

Heavenly bees said:


> does any body know ?


Noop, never heard of that.


----------



## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Barry said:


> I don't know, but we're not here to promote off label use of pesticides.


I know what you mean, Barry, and I'm not trying to start an argument, but Mineral Oil and Powdered Sugar aren't labeled for the Treatment of Varroa and they are freely talked about all the time. Is that different? Just curious.


----------



## Barry (Dec 28, 1999)

Short answer, yes.


----------



## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Even shorter answer, k.


----------



## Heavenly bees (Mar 27, 2011)

Barry said:


> I don't know, but we're not here to promote off label use of pesticides.


i totally understand


----------



## Tim Stewart (Jul 19, 2009)

About powdered sugar, while we are slightly on the topic, it doesn't knock off a very good percentage of mites, I think I read 40-60% of the mites that aren't in brood. The use of it is extremely labor intensive to hit all of the mites that are hatching out, and it puts a LOT of stress on the bees. A recent survey on winter loss in New Jersey showed that people who didn't treat for mites lost 65% of their colonies over winter, while those who sugar dusted to control mites lost 75%. The legal treatments only lost 15-20% and most of those losses were ones that were treated to late in the year to have young winter bees that weren't parasatised or fed by parasatised bees. Hitting them early (August in NJ) with any type of treatment that works in warm weather will knock off the large majority of mites.

Tim Stewart


----------



## beestooth (Apr 10, 2011)

BMAC ... empty slot ? ... you mean an empty frame in a slot (position) ........ which position ? 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 ??


----------

