@Semaphore yes I did. Bees have to learn to live with varroa or we are looking at a hopeless scenario. Research into killing the mite is, in my opinion, going the wrong way. The most significant way that varroa destroys bees is by inoculating the colony with deformed wing virus. It is the virus that we should be looking at. Virologists have found a DWV variant that has no pathogenicity and even better it out performs the pathogenic one. Colonies of bees are in existence in pockets all over the world that have this variant. They still carry varroa mites but these mites pass on little disease. Add hygienic queens to the mix and you have a resource for the bees to manage and live with varroa. That is my take on it and that opinion is shared by many scientists working with bees.
PS its expensive too
Oxalic sublimation costs cents per hive per year
has anyone tried using raw nettles in a hive?
i have tons of it and would like to use it as a preventative.
curious if i should stick in the bottom, across the top of the frames, in the entrance (i have no reducer on at this point).
search doesnāt yield too much specifics in using them in raw form, only that formic acid is very good treatment for varroa control.
(Bayer actually built this contraption with formic acid to serve as a āvarroa gateā for the entrance)
came across this however: recipe for bee tea.
basically mixing herbs into the sugar syrup brew.
kinda like a DIY HoneyBHealthy (and much cheaper)
Does anyone know of the heat actually kills the mites? Iām hoping so as we regularly get days over 40C in summer. If that was so then they might not be as problematic if/when we get them. We donāt have brood breaks as our winter is too mild.
I lost my hive to Varroa this winter. I am a total newbee and didnāt even know about them until it was too late. I would rather treat the hive naturally. I read (in Wikipedia of all places) that essential oils of lemon, mint and thyme were effective in killing the varroa mites without harm to the adult bees. The research was sited, which I read, but it doesnāt discuss the method of treatment and the amounts discussed were waaaay over my head. Has anybody tried using essential oils to treat for varroa?
Oxalic acid is natural (found in rhubarb, spinach and many other plants), organic and approved for Varroa treatment. It is also proven to be effective in Europe, Canada and recently the US. That would be my preference. I donāt know of any credible research with essential oil, except perhaps thyme oil (Thymol), but that is of limited value without other options.
Lots and lots of them have lost their hives.[quote=āJudy_Reeves, post:46, topic:1144ā]
I would rather treat the hive naturally.
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With the greatest respect you really need to understand how the bee/varroa life cycle interacts and how those beekeepers that do treat go about it and how to monitor your colony for infestation.
You cannot afford to experiment with one hive. You will lose them, start again next spring with a new colony and lose them again. How many times will you do that before you give up? Itās heartbreaking to see losses like that.
As Dawn says, Oxalic acid is organic, natural and effective. There are many protocols that are effective and vaporising seems to be the way to go but the rate of application differs in the presence or absence of brood.
Thymol is an essential oil and is applied in a very concentrated form and does upset the bees but it is nearly as effective as Oxalic.
I can give you a protocol for treating with Oxalic if you are interested
You could have a look here
There is a lot to read, Iām afraid
Michael Bush will probably be here soon to say he doesnāt treat his bees.
He has lots of hives and has had lots of losses on the way.
I have not. Nor has my mentor of 30 years lost any due to mites.
I have seen a buildup actually of my colony since we went into winter.
I would check out Little Creek the ranch. Ken teaches classes on a number of things one of which is an all day class in a classroom using essential oils. I drove 8 hours to take this class as well as several others from him over a period of 3 months. I cannot tell you how much I learned and now understand more about the Honeybee and beekeeping.
I am not the longest distance traveler to his class. Heās had a few that have flown into town rented a car in Tulsa and then drive another hour and a half to him. Well worth the money and time
Also look at what Michael as said. Heās not treated I wonder what heās using ?
Hi Judy, so sorry about your colony. Same happened to me, because I applied an effective treatment in an ineffective manner. Unfortunately varroa mites have raised the bee survival bar very high in so many parts of the world. There may be some evidence that oils work, but I havent found any very convincing methods using them. Dawn & Dee know what theyāre talking about - and the link above posted by Logan gives a great overview of the problem along with a specific oxalic acid treatment timetable. Performing mite counts and oxalic acid vapor treatments are not very difficult at all, and youāll get plenty of help & guidance here. But please see if you can find someone with experience in your area too - very often your methods need to be modified to suit your local climate & people here may not have exact enough knowledge of that.
Marty. All of us here, me included, ( I may have a brash manner but I mean well ) are open to reasonable suggestions. I would happily not treat my colonies with anything if I could get away with it but I canāt. What essential oils are you using and what do you do with them? I could try your regime on one box, happily.
So please share your regime.
People will slap a flea and tick collar on a dog or bathe it in flea and tick shampoo at the first sign of parasites but their bees? āSorry you lilā bastards, youāll have to adapt!ā lol
On a serious note: I suggest reading āOverwintering Bees in Cold Climatesā by Marla Spivac of the University of Minnesota. You can be treatment free but it involves splitting the hives each year and letting the āparentā hive succumb to the mites.
@Anon
That makes me so sad. You are not encouraging bees that can cope which is kind of what treatment free is about. Instead you are creating a brood break which is well known to slow varroa build up, for obvious reasons, and simply letting the parent colony die. I couldnāt do that knowing I could save them.
Whatās the difference between leaving them alone to see if they die vs leaving them alone to see if they are survivors? How else would one know if they had survivors unless they left them alone?
If they survive the winter, split 'em again the following Spring.
I think treating bees is for commercial bee keepers. Those bees have a super hard life in those monoculture almond fields. Not to mention all the bees in America coming together to share every disease available before going home to spread it to all areas of the country. Thanks Typhoid Marybee.
If you want to keep bees naturally you have to look at how bees have always lived. Bee keepers and American agriculture are the only mite bees canāt escape.
Bees want to breed and survive. Swarming is the only way to keep bees. Everyone can successfully keep bees when they stop keeping them like cats. Neuter your bees and they die. Keeping bees unnaturally is just crazy. Bees live just a few weeks, let them be bees.
Natural bee keeping can be done with a few changes to your set up. You need to go the whole way though, not just stopping treatments. Treatment isnāt the issue, natural is the issue. Get on the Micheal Bush band wagon!!
And remember Iām just as wrong as everyone else. No one understands all this, the universe is the only model. But do you want to be wrong AND poison the world, or just be wrong? Get some extra boxes and frames, let your bees multiply, stop buying bees from people outside your bee club, love your bees!!
Brood breaks (most effectively done by allowing to swarm), drone culling, leaving the bees their own honey but most importantly accept you will have very significant losses to start with and breed only from the survivors.
I take exception to that. My bees would die if I didnāt tackle varroa. There are too many beekeepers with untreated collapsing colonies around me.
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