2011 varroa levels

[Jon]

I started treating colonies around mid August with Apiguard and have seen hardly any mites dropping. Other years I have had a drop of 150 in the first 24 hours from some colonies. This year I am seeing just a few mites on the boards I have examined.
Anyone else seeing lower than usual varroa levels? Last season's treatment was Apiguard in September and Oxalic in December.

[gavin]

Had been going to leave the smaller colonies still down here, but I'm now persuaded to treat (Apiguard) having seen the thymol-induced knock-down on a friend's colony that hadn't been dropping mites without treatment. The stronger ones in the hills pose a bit of a problem as they cannot be treated yet - maybe in a week or so.

Does your paucity of mites also apply to the big booming colonies that raised lots of drones?

[Jimbo]

Just started treatment. Last year used Apiguard and Oxalic. This year so far the natural drop has been very low but I treated with Thymol Crystals in alcohol anyway and after a week counted only 30 mites but will treat again with Oxalic in December. Our club apairy colonies which have been treated with Bayvarol strips have had a low drop as well. Where are all the varroa?

[Jon]

Does your paucity of mites also apply to the big booming colonies that raised lots of drones?

I am not seeing significant numbers of mites in any colony, just like Jimbo's observations, only a few dozen here or there after treatment has started.

Where are all the varroa?

That's what I was wondering.
I don't like to tempt fate but my bees have been really healthy and vigorous all year.
Maybe we started with very low levels of varroa due to the effectiveness of Oxalic and that severe cold spell.
Colonies must have been 100% broodless for quite a while.

[Adam]

Low mite levels for me too. I treated with Apiguard at this time last year and Oxalic Acid between Christmas and New Year. Just before treatment last year I did see some deformed wings indicating that the varroa were starting to have a deleterious effect on bee health. This year I have seen just one bee with deformed wings.

I had external inspections from the bee inspector and also for my General Husbandry certificate this year and comments from both visitors that they were 'pleasantly' surprised that there were no varroa in the drones that were ripped out.

For you guys further North than me with a longer broodless period in winter, Oxalic Acid should be a more effective treatment than it is for us Southerners.

[Jon]

Oxalic Acid should be a more effective treatment than it is for us Southerners.

And it costs under 10p to treat a colony whereas other treatments such as Apiguard, Apistan and Bayvarol cost over £3.

[Neils]

mixed bag here. I've had my "best" colony really struggle with varroa this year. My best (non honey producers) have been swarms that have been treated with OA before they established brood.

As an ongoing, low cost treatment, I think I disagree with Jon about icing sugar. I think it has its place, is effective in isolation and if you understand its weaknesses. It is not a replacement for thymol or oxalic acid nor is it a treatment to be used in isolation, but I feel that it is not to be discounted either.

All that aside I have to say that our varroa levels have been a mixed bag, if you run an apiary with other people you MUST run treatments at the same time, agree an IPM and so on. There is no point putting OA on one swarm and not on another, putting Icing sugar on some and not others.

I..We've screwed up this year, we both have bees that are struggling with varroa. If there's a plus side, we've identified the colonies not to raise queens from. We've tried, as much as possible to be hands off, while still treating, and we're obviously not doing enough.

I still recall gavin's post from two years ago and I have bees from that queen so it remains a possibility, but we all take queens from survivors?

Varroa are evil little buggers, you can play, you can try not treating, or just treating enough, but it's a sad, sad sight to see a colony struggling for the sake if having given them a dose of OA. I have bees in the latter. If they live I'll requeen them in the spring but I failed, I made a colony suffer because I knew better and that does make me hurt. I know it's a box of bugs but it pains me to see them struggle when I could, should have sorted them out when I had the chance.

[Neils]

I generally cull the first drone cells of the season and then rely on uncapping to monitor after that, not much help if you keep removing it all I also think that continually chopping out drones isn't helpful except in rare circumstances, they want to raise drones so continually preventing them from doing that adds a stress factor to the colony.

I do tend to make a point that foundation comes in packs of 10 which is perfect for leaving a foundationless frame for them to raise drones in.

[Jimbo]

Ok Jon I confess. I have been on the payroll of the evil empire. I have done some work in the past for various chemical companies. Not for apiculture or agriculture but for human medical research. Does that still make me evil?