# Mite control with screened bottom boards



## TxGypsy (Nov 23, 2006)

Early this spring I got a lot of frames of brood from a commercial beekeeper. He had his hives on pallets with solid boards under the hives. He had just come back from the almond groves in California. I noticed that these bees had a pretty heavy mite load. However since almost all of my hives got poisoned last year I was desperate and went ahead and bought a LOT of bees from him(several hundred frames with accompanying bees). 

At first they were in solid bottomed corrugated plastic nuc boxes. The mite load was still pretty high. Then something very interesting happened when I transferred them into full sized hives with screened bottom boards. Immediately the mite numbers dropped dramatically. Also, the bees became calmer. After a month in screened bottom boards there is no sign of mites in my hives. I'm not saying that there are no mites at all in my hives, but there are so few that they are undetectable.

I know that you northern beekeepers need a solid bottom on your hives for the winter, but you might consider putting screened boards on during the summer.

If you put screened bottom boards on your hives you need to raise them up off the ground a bit. Screened bottom boards work by allowing the mites to fall through the screen and out of the hive. The bees remove the mites when they groom themselves. When there is a solid bottom board on the hive the mites fall to the bottom then just crawl back up and reattach to another bee. My hives sit up on metal stands. So if a mite falls out of the hive it has almost no chance of reattaching.

Here is a picture of one of my hive stands with a mixture of nuc boxes and regular boxes with screened bottom boards.


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## Dan in Ohio (Jul 16, 2005)

I hope you are right and that works. That reason plus better ventilation is why I went with screened bottoms for my hives . . . I also have a board that inserts into a slot underneath for colder weather. I think I built my stands about 18-20" off the ground.


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## TxGypsy (Nov 23, 2006)

Mine have the slot too. I place foam board under mine in the winter.

I'm working on building double hive pallets with screened bottom boards. I'll post pictures after I get some built. Got to be an easier way that schlepping them in stacks using my back.


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## GunMonkeyIntl (May 13, 2013)

My slide-in boards have a grid printed on them, and you're supposed to cover them with petroleum jelly to catch any mites that fall through. The grid is supposed to help with counting them and quantifying the issue, if you have one. I've been checking it and occasionally scraping capped drones to look for them but haven't found any yet. 

I was instructed that your first, least invasive remedial action was to dust the bees, on the frames, with powdered sugar. Obviously, it's safe for them to eat, but it supposedly sends them into a grooming frenzy, trying to clean the sugar off each other, and taking most of the mites with them. I read a schedule somewhere that laid out when you were supposed to do repeat treatments to help them get rid of the mites that were inside cells, on the brood, during the first treatment. 

I sure like the sound of this treatment better than the chemical ones, at least as a plan A.


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## TxGypsy (Nov 23, 2006)

I do not at all like the powdered sugar treatment. It is bound to get into the cells of the larvae and possibly is inhaled by the bees. 

I have not had to do any sort of treatment since I have started using screened bottom boards, but if I did need to I would freeze drone comb. The mites much prefer to reproduce on drone larvae. There is foundation available that is drone sized, or you can just use a frame that has a lot of drone comb on it. You may have to confine the queen to this comb in order to get her to lay in it if it isn't early spring. Once the drone larvae are capped you stick it in the freezer for 24 hours. This will get nearly all the mites in the hive.

Another method is to do a brood break. There are several different methods to do this, but basically there is no brood in the hive for a couple of weeks and the mites reproductive cycle is interrupted.


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## 1shotwade (Jul 9, 2013)

I'd stay away from the powdered sugar. It's hard to find powdered sugar that is not cut with corn starch. This will constipate the bees and will increase you mortality. I think a much better plan is to mix up spring feed with sugar or corn syrup. Keep it thin enough to use in a sprayer. I open the hive and spray directly down between the frames which soaks a lot of the bees and let the grooming begin.I don't have any set schedule but once a month or how ever often you will be getting into them should be fine.

Wade


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

I live in the north and use SBB year round. The trick is to have some way to close off the screens in the winter months. It also has the added benefit of draining off moisture from winter hives.
I made my own powdered sugar when we had a manageable amount of colony's we could do so with.
My plans are here.
http://forum.tractorfarmandfamily.com/showthread.php?t=12753

I also use the drone comb freeze method. I keep two frames of drone comb which get rotated every 20 days for each colony.
I had just did a switch one day and the second day I got a call from the lady where the bees were located. She says Al I was walking by the bees and there are a whole bunch of white grub looking things on all of them.
The girls were cleaning the thawed drone larva out of the cells.

 Al


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