# increasing mites



## Robert Brenchley (Apr 23, 2000)

If you're seeing DVW, treat urgently with something else. You've got too many mites in that hive to risk restricting yourself to an experimental treatment.

That being said, do you have other hives in the same apiary, and if so, what's their situation like? Susceptibility does vary, and if there's any reason to believe that that hive is particularly vulnerable, requeening would be justified. last October, I found a sudden, massive influx of mites, and almost instant DVW. I treated with Apiguard (fortunately the weather was still, unusually, warm enough to do so), but one hive, which had more DVW than the others, died out within a few weeks. I can only assume that those bees were more susceptible to the virus, in which case I'm well rid of their genes.


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## kenpkr (Apr 6, 2004)

If you do sugar dust be sure to use a sifter so that the sugar particles are as small as they can be. I've read that by just pouring sugar in from the bag you aren't getting enough small particle sugar in there to clog the mite's feet so that they fall off and away from the bees.


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## Kyle Meadows (Jul 14, 2006)

Thanks for the replies.
I have 5 other hives in the same apiary and they are all more stable in their mite numbers, however they are all much less populated. I have not used anything other than powdered sugar in the hives so far and I don't want to use chemicals, even if it means losing a hive.
I mentioned DWV only because I have seen a tiny bit of it, as in 2 bees out of tens of thousands, so hopefully that's in check. The queen in that hive is one the bees raised themselves last year from a split and is the only one of my original three hives that survived the mites last fall, so I am hesitant to requeen.
Regarding the method of dusting, I'm using Randy Oliver's screen method, so I believe the sugar is very fine. It's certainly landing the mites on the sticky board.
Any advise on how often is too often to dust?


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

Every three to eight days is probably good. Once a week seems to work pretty well.


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## spunky (Nov 14, 2006)

*Kyle*

Have you thought about a fogger ???? I might try that next season, FGMO with menthol


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