I bought some from Thornes many years ago but have never opened it. They don't seem to sell liquid formic now, but they are selling Mite Away II pads.
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I bought some from Thornes many years ago but have never opened it. They don't seem to sell liquid formic now, but they are selling Mite Away II pads.
For anyone wondering what a bee with a heavy infection of DWV looks like:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQ3gbT2LVac
Great video Gavin! Very interesting. Re the Formic/MiteAway it's collection only so a bit of a problem for me.
Gerry
Do you use HBS? Evelyn and Neil don't have it on their web site at present, but maybe they'd consider getting stock if you ask.
Haven't yet Gavin but I'm likely to be over there for a few poly national brood boxes in the near future so I'll maybe ask.
Gerry
I don't believe you can rely on the mite fall count with open mesh floors; if there are bees with Deformed Wing Virus that you see there will be many more that you do not see as they try to crawl away from the colony or are removed by the healthy bees. It is likely there are significant varroa mite levels within the colony already. I think it is more reliable to uncap drone brood and if you start seeing 2 or 3 mites in several uncapped cells then there is a real problem!
Alvearium
Something I have been shown recently when looking for DWV is to look for bees head down in cells so you just have a little bee's arse visible showing no obvious sign of coming back out again, if you dig it out you'll frequently find it's suffering with DWV. It was put to me that they're basically hiding as they'll be turfed out the colony if discovered.