# Treated 2 more hives with OAV Sunday



## Gumpy (Mar 30, 2016)

Please continue to count mites daily and update this thread as you go forward. 

I have been chronicling my own battle with mites on another thread. I'm currently at 11 treatments and have killed 12000 mites in one hive. 

1050 24-hour counts exceed all my numbers. I find that often my 2nd day counts exceed the first day counts. 

craig


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## psm1212 (Feb 9, 2016)

Gumpy:

I have been following your thread every day. I will do my best to keep track of my counts and post them here. You please do the same. 

Patrick


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## Gumpy (Mar 30, 2016)

psm1212 said:


> Gumpy:
> 
> I have been following your thread every day. I will do my best to keep track of my counts and post them here. You please do the same.
> 
> Patrick


:thumbsup:


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## beefarmer (May 2, 2010)

are you treating with the varrox, or are you doing the heat gun way ?


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## Tom1617 (Oct 17, 2016)

I just updated my 24 hour drops at the end of my thread... I thought mine were bad... 1000 one day drop = more than 14000 mites in your hive in my opinion... vape every 4 days in my opinion... 5 times. This is my first experience with oav and I have my plan ready for the upcoming season because of the data from everyone that has been reporting here.


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## psm1212 (Feb 9, 2016)

beefarmer said:


> are you treating with the varrox, or are you doing the heat gun way ?


Varrox.


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## toekneepea (Jul 7, 2010)

It would be great to get an update on March 1st or April 1st with everyone's survival rates.

Tony


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## Tom1617 (Oct 17, 2016)

Varrox


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## crofter (May 5, 2011)

Tom1617 said:


> I just updated my 24 hour drops at the end of my thread... I thought mine were bad... 1000 one day drop = more than 14000 mites in your hive in my opinion... vape every 4 days in my opinion... 5 times. This is my first experience with oav and I have my plan ready for the upcoming season because of the data from everyone that has been reporting here.


Tom, on the adjacent hives with such a discrepancy in mite drops, do you envision that much difference in total mite #s in colony (both under cappings, and phoretic), or would it be due to different schedules of brooding of each colony?


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## Tom1617 (Oct 17, 2016)

Hard to explain except resistance... Looking at these numbers if they are an accurate representation of the mite colonies in each of those hives that's incredible. If these hives were treated equal, I would use the queens with low varroa to breed queens for nucs next spring and test the results. Assuming the hive is a good honey producer. 
A count of less than 20 dead mites for a first vape is extremely low.


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## psm1212 (Feb 9, 2016)

This is what 1050 varroa mites look like on a white board. 

I will post new numbers tonight.


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## crofter (May 5, 2011)

Tom1617 said:


> Hard to explain except resistance... Looking at these numbers if they are an accurate representation of the mite colonies in each of those hives that's incredible. If these hives were treated equal, I would use the queens with low varroa to breed queens for nucs next spring and test the results. Assuming the hive is a good honey producer.
> A count of less than 20 dead mites for a first vape is extremely low.


My thoughts went to the possibility that the low count hive had been shut down brooding but started up again and had say 5 frames quickly capped brood; the mites would be highly concentrated under brood and would show a low mite drop after an OA vap. Just wondering what an inspection of the frames on the two hives would show regarding an inventory of different categories of bees and brood.

Certainly if the explanation was resistance without any other reasons, that would be the one to breed from. Mine is a very closed stock and until very recently no ferals or managed bees around me. I have only been doing mite drops on one colony and the others get the same treatment. Counts were possibly 6 mites total in more than a week after my last round of OA.

I know my bees are reputedly fairly good mite fighters but credit my low counts on isolation and at least on OA Vap spring and fall. This year for a first, I saw a few crawlers so did a series on all colonies.


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## psm1212 (Feb 9, 2016)

UPDATE:

10/23/16 Treatment 1:

Hive 3: Day 1 drop count: 197; Day 2 drop count: 40 mites; Aggregate 237 mite drop in 48 hours.
Hive 4: Day 1 drop count: 13; Day 2 drop count: 5 mites; Aggregate 18 mite drop in 48 hours.

10/31/16 Treatment 2:

Hive 3: 48 hour drop count: 35 (No 24 hour count)
Hive 4: 48 hour drop count: 10 (No 24 hour count)

10/31/16 Treatment 1:

Hive 1: Day 1 drop count: 1050; Day 2 drop count: 783; 1833 mite drop in 48 hours
Hive 2: Day 1 drop count: 75; Day 2 drop count: 35: 110 mite drop in 48 hours


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## psm1212 (Feb 9, 2016)

UPDATE:

10/31/16 Treatment 1:

Hive 1: 
Day 1 drop count: 1050; 
Day 2 drop count: 783;
Day 3 drop count: 183;

3 day drop total: 2016 mites


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## psm1212 (Feb 9, 2016)

UPDATE:

11/4/16 Treatment 2:

Hive 1:
Day 1 drop count: 1,875

I'm in trouble.


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## costigaj (Oct 28, 2015)

Hang in there. I finished an Apivar treatment a month ago and it dropped 15000+ mites over the 6 weeks. Hive is doing well now.


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## Gumpy (Mar 30, 2016)

Corrected.


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## Mike Gillmore (Feb 25, 2006)

Looks like a 4 day interval to me ... on Hive #1


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## Gumpy (Mar 30, 2016)

Mike Gillmore said:


> Looks like a 4 day interval to me ... on Hive #1


Oh, you're right. I missed the date that was lower in the post. I corrected my previous message.


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## psm1212 (Feb 9, 2016)

UPDATE ON HIVE 1:

*10/31/16 Treatment 1:*

Day 1 drop count: 1050; 
Day 2 drop count: 783;
Day 3 drop count: 183;

*11/4/16 Treatment 2:*

Day 1 drop count: 1875
Day 2 drop count: 274 

Heck of a swing. 274 mites probably shouldn't be something to be happy about, but I was relieved. I am going to count again tomorrow. I am going to treat again on the 8th.

Not to overload info, but Hive 2 is becoming interesting too.

HIVE 2:

*10/31/16 Treatment 1:*

Day 1 drop count: 75; 
Day 2 drop count: 13;

*11/4/16 Treatment 2:*

Day 1 drop count: 783
Day 2 drop count: 33

I keep reading about these spikes in counts on the 2nd day after treatment. I am not seeing any of that. Instead I am getting huge drops on the 2nd day.


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## Gumpy (Mar 30, 2016)

psm1212 said:


> UPDATE ON HIVE 1:
> 
> *10/31/16 Treatment 1:*
> 
> ...


The fact that you are seeing huge drops in the counts on day 2 seems to indicate your treatments are very effective and your bees are getting the dead mites cleaned off quickly. I think both would be a good sign. I would not get too happy about the 274 mites until you see them numbers on the day following the next treatment. If your trends continue, it may well be extremely high, but if your treatments continue on 4 day intervals, you should be killing them as fast as they can emerge.


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## psm1212 (Feb 9, 2016)

UPDATE:

Day 3 drop counts:

Hive 1: 85
Hive 2: 18


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## psm1212 (Feb 9, 2016)

UPDATE:

30-Oct-16	Treatment
31-Oct-16	1050
1-Nov-16	783
2-Nov-16	183
3-Nov-16	Treatment
4-Nov-16	1875
5-Nov-16	274
6-Nov-16	85
7-Nov-16	Treatment
8-Nov-16	553


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## psm1212 (Feb 9, 2016)

UPDATE:

30-Oct-16	Treatment
31-Oct-16	1050
1-Nov-16	783
2-Nov-16	183
3-Nov-16	Treatment
4-Nov-16	1875
5-Nov-16	274
6-Nov-16	85
7-Nov-16	Treatment
8-Nov-16	553
9-Nov-16	171


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## psm1212 (Feb 9, 2016)

UPDATE:

30-Oct-16	Treatment
31-Oct-16	1050
1-Nov-16	783
2-Nov-16	183
3-Nov-16	Treatment
4-Nov-16	1875
5-Nov-16	274
6-Nov-16	85
7-Nov-16	Treatment
8-Nov-16	553
9-Nov-16	171
10-Nov-16	71


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## psm1212 (Feb 9, 2016)

UPDATE:
30-Oct-16	Treatment
31-Oct-16	1050
1-Nov-16	783
2-Nov-16	183
3-Nov-16	Treatment
4-Nov-16	1875
5-Nov-16	274
6-Nov-16	85
7-Nov-16	Treatment
8-Nov-16	553
9-Nov-16	171
10-Nov-16	71
11-Nov-16	out of town
12-Nov-16	Treatment
13-Nov-16	60


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## psm1212 (Feb 9, 2016)

Alright, I am done. I have a 3 day mite count under 100 after 4 treatments. Below are the final results. I will probably do a single treatment in the middle of December.

30-Oct-16	Treatment
31-Oct-16	1050
1-Nov-16	783
2-Nov-16	183
3-Nov-16	Treatment
4-Nov-16	1875
5-Nov-16	274
6-Nov-16	85
7-Nov-16	Treatment
8-Nov-16	553
9-Nov-16	171
10-Nov-16	71
11-Nov-16	out of town
12-Nov-16	Treatment
13-Nov-16	60
14-Nov-16	15
15-Nov-16	9


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