# What is the recommended varroa treatment for spring 2015?



## jean-marc (Jan 13, 2005)

Provincial Apiarists do not make recommendations other than to treat. There is no IPM for 2015 afaik, never has been unlikely ever will. Most guys I think in BC and Alberta are Apivar in Spring. Most use formic in fall.

I am Apivar in spring and thymol in fall. Have been for sometime. Will likely continue along that path until the next crisis. I will try a few Apistan this spring.

Jean-Marc


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## ABruce (Dec 27, 2013)

I am a first year beekeeper, I use OAV in the fall, and I am trying to understand what and when is the right choice for spring. Jean_Marc could you comment on why you choose the products your using and when you use them.
thanks


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## jean-marc (Jan 13, 2005)

Apivar in the late winter because it is very effective. Varroa are tired at that point. Usually bees are in top box and flying from the notch in the inner cover. When the varroa get knocked down there are no bees to latch back onto. The varroa stay on the bottom board and freeze. We do treatment in late winter just as bees start to brood we can treat at the recommended rate of 1 strip for 5 frames of bees. Usually 2 strips is enough to do the job. If we treated in the fall with Apistan it would require 4 strips.

We use thymol in the fall because we like to knock back the mites a bit. Thymol appears to be effective against tracheal mites as well.

Jean-Marc


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## JodieToadie (Dec 26, 2013)

jean-marc said:


> Provincial Apiarists do not make recommendations other than to treat. There is no IPM for 2015 afaik, never has been unlikely ever will. Most guys I think in BC and Alberta are Apivar in Spring. Most use formic in fall.
> 
> I am Apivar in spring and thymol in fall. Have been for sometime. Will likely continue along that path until the next crisis. I will try a few Apistan this spring.
> 
> Jean-Marc


If I phone Paul or Medhat I can usually get a recommendation in a round about way. I was just wondering what the flavor of the day was so that I change it up on the mites. 
Do you follow the Thymol recommendations and put it on a second time after 3 weeks or just one set of strips?


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## jean-marc (Jan 13, 2005)

I put second set of strips after 2 weeks.

Jean-Marc


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## jean-marc (Jan 13, 2005)

I put second set of strips after 2 weeks.

Jean-Marc


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## chillardbee (May 26, 2005)

I'm kinda backwards from what Jean-marc does. Strips in the fall and I use formic in both spring and fall (2-3 flash treatments at both times). The early fall strips after the honey is cleared seems to knock the mites quite effeciently and early enough to raise good winter bees. I used apivar for 2012 and 2013 with great success and this year I used apistan with same results. I might add that I had low mite levels before adding the apistan and non-existant now. I will be alternating between apivar and apistan now.


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