New queen emerges/mite treatments

I saw mouse crap on my bottom board entry. do you know if there is a mouse in there if OAV will kill mouse . I would be doing a mite treatment. it’s to cold to open hive now to check.

Oooh, I believe it would - and would be a gruesome death :skull:

But I just looked at your entrance & I think it’s too small for one to get in…might’ve tried to and just thought to leave some turds before splitting the scene.

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I am afraid not. I might try putting a mouse trap just outside the entrance. I use the humane ones, baited with a cracker coated in peanut butter. I have been very successful with those around our house, and it might work before the weather gets really cold. If it is close to the entrance, the mouse will smell it, and it won’t hurt the bees. Make sure you drop any live mice off at least a mile away! :blush:

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Thanks I will try that. what about mouse poison well outside of hive

Bees won’t eat mouse poison, so it should be safe for them. On the other hand, if the mouse is already inside your hive, it probably won’t venture out far to find the poisoned bait. But if it can smell peanut butter wafting in through the entrance, it might get very motivated! :blush:

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I’ll try both poison and trap

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Do any of you know if theres a certain that you cannot do a OAV treatment? My outdoor temps have been around 34°F lately.

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If there was a mouse get into the hive it will of course be dead from bee stings so when the weather warms up have a look just inside the entrance for it. I often found mice dead inside my hives till I fitted ‘mouse guards’ over the entrances.
Cheers Eric

Thanks. I’m nervous opening hive now since it’s pretty cold here. Average of 34°F.

hopefully well get some warm days soon before winter.

I believe the makers of the Varrox vaporizer (one of the best) say that 4C or about 38F is the minimum to do it. Any time in the day when it is about that level should be fine. In other words, it doesn’t have to be early morning or late evening.

You don’t need to open the hive at all to do an OAV treatment though, as you know. I think they recommend that temperature so that the treatment doesn’t all solidify on the walls right away. :wink:

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I take for granted Western Australia’s mite free bee keeping. I don’t think I’d even get started in bee keeping if it weren’t the case. We are truly blessed.

Wishing you the best with your hive @EasyE Thanks for sharing the pictures of the queen cells.

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