# mites



## MN Homegrown (Jun 22, 2006)

I am new to beekeeping got first hive this spring. while inspecting the hive on Thursday the 2ed hive body has 5 frames drawn out, and I seen a few mites. What would be the best treatment? Would a screenboard and sticky paper be sufficient? Any suggestoins would be helpfull THANK YOU.


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## dcross (Aug 12, 2005)

Pop in a sticky board for about 3 days and then let us know how many mites you get. It's not enough to control them by itself.


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## MN Homegrown (Jun 22, 2006)

I will get sticky board Mon.and see what I catch. I will let you know. Thanks


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

For starters this time of year I would dust them with powdered sugar. Of course I would also have them on a screened bottom board too.


From this site:::::::
http://www.countryrubes.com/index.html
Trying to get back to our organic roots, we started working with screens, sticky boards and powdered sugar (full instructions) to control Varroa Mites. This board is the accumulation of years of experiments plus the help and advice of our more experienced beekeeper friends. We are excited about the results we are getting and are sure you will be equally pleased.

I like this method along with the drone comb manipulation.

 Al


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## Jack Parr (Sep 23, 2005)

with powdered sugar and Sucrocide to be effective should be done to each and every frame.

That means pulling up, and, out of the hive box all the frames so that the sugar can be sifted on as many of the bees as possible on the frames both sides. Ditto for the Sucrocide liquid, which is sprayed. 

I really don't think that all the bees will be treated well by just sifting some sugar on the top of the frames and brushing it off. Usually the comb is built out to almost close the space between the frames. Also the bees eat that sugar rapidly.

The sugar idea is to get the mites that are attached to the bees which will make them lose their foot hold/grip and fall through the screen bottom. 

The Sucricide treatment is the same idea.

These treatment should be done at least three times every 7-10 days to cover a brood cycle. 

Both treatments are traumatic for the bees and probably more so for the beekeeper. To share the pain and ease of application the procedure is best done by two people, one holding the frame and the other doing the sugar sifting and/or spraying. 

I have done both and there is an increased mite drop after but it's a real PITA and there is some bee mortality. 

There are, now, some new treatments using Apiguard, a synthetic " thymol " developed by VITA, a chemical company. I am going to treat my hives with this product this year. 

There is also a natural product called " Api life var " that is supposed to do do the same and that is a mixture of natural " thymol, eucalyptus and menthol ". I'll be trying that next year. 

I would of course prefer not to have to do any treatments at all with anything but I am concerned about losing my bee colonies. I have bought, and, am now using the Russian queens and Italian SMR queens. They are supposed to have improved mite resistance but to find out takes a certain period of time and if the colonies do become heavily infested, they will perish.

Not using chemical treatments in hives is an ideal but lets face it, chemicals are part of our lives and life expectancy keeps going up so... If YOU but food from the stores, YOU are eating chemicals.

JP


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## dcross (Aug 12, 2005)

How about we find out if there's a problem before treating?


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Lets see now, New hives this spring. More than likely package bees from the south. Package bees from the south come with mites. I doubt he doesn't have any mites so giving them a treatment of powder sugar is a small cost to help the girls groom them off each other. And sweeping it off the top bars does work at reduceing the mite count on the sticky board. Yes they do clean it up too and make use of it. Isn't that a nice benifit?

 Al


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## dcross (Aug 12, 2005)

First year packages rarely have serious mite populations due to the fact they come broodless.

Powdered sugar has benefits, but isn't it best to check before and after treating so you know if you're doing it right? Especially when you're a beginner?


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## MN Homegrown (Jun 22, 2006)

put in sticky board and after 3 days have got a total of 34 mites this doesnt seem bad does it?


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

We use the hundred times method. What is on the sticky board times 100 is what we figure is in the hive.

 Al


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## John Schneider (Sep 9, 2005)

OMG...I can't believe I actually read that "chemicals are part of our lives and life expectancy keeps going up". Life expectancy will go up I suppose, along with cancer and disease rates that bring the "quality" of life down (not to mention the irreparable damage to our environment). The fact that disease treatment is getting better (and has to) is not necessarily a good thing...I sure wish we could treat the problem, not the symptom. That is the problem with chemical dependancy...people see no way around it. Sorry, not a personal attack, but we MUST get past this idea that our problems are treated with chemical shortcuts. 

Back to bees, one thing that is achieving some good results is to revert back to small size cells. Here is a link that talks about it. http://www.bushfarms.com/bees.htm
Getting back to normal sized cells and therefore, bees, results in a decrease in mite populations. This, combined with screened boards, re-queening on a regular basis, improved breeding for disease and mite resistance and other natural methods works as well or better than being lazy and applying chemicals. Wild bee colonies are on the re-bound and have established resistance to problems that plague commercial beekeepers. There is a reason for that and it is all that I have mentioned above. It will take some work, but like ALL other aspects of farming, chemicals are not necessary to achieve results that are acceptable.


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## MN Homegrown (Jun 22, 2006)

Thank you for the info


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