Varroa Mite

[nantmoel]

I have had the inspection board in one of our hives for a few days and have been looking at it daily, yesterday I saw two varroa mites and today I actually found a live one. I removed it from the board and took a picture of it with my iPhone, so over 5 day I have counted 3 mites. I have included a picture (not the best), having returned to bee keeping after over a 20 year break, varroa is something that was only just starting to effect bees when I gave up. A big learning curve ahead in methods to treat them.

 

[GarysBees]

I'm far from experienced but that seems like a very low number. In a fairly small hive I counted 19 drops onto the inspection board within a 24 hour period. I decided to treat and the following 24 hours I saw a mass of 183 land on the board. Another 24 hours it fell down to 72. So I think I caught that in time.

 

[GarysBees]

By the way have you put white card down greased it? Or is this just what you've seen on the normal board?

 

[B+.]

having returned to bee keeping after over a 20 year break, varroa is something that was only just starting to effect bees when I gave up. A big learning curve ahead in methods to treat them.

That is an adult female mite (immature mites are a transparent creamy colour and males are slightly pointed at the front).
To assess the level of infestation, the natural mite fall is taken when willows bloom in the spring (3 * 1 week sticky board counts under the open mesh floor) and a >30g sample of bees from the super in the first week of July. You can read the procedure here http://coloss.org/beebook/II/varroa/4/2

I tested mine with the soapy water solution in the first week of July and got results ranging from 4 to 10 mites per 50g sample (a bigger sample is easier to work with). This gives a maximum adult bee infestation of 2 per 10g which is well bellow the 5-10 mites where treatment is recommended. The point I am making is that you don't automatically need to treat your bees with anything. I haven't treated mine since about 1993 or 1994 so a non-treatment breeding programme can work too.

 

[pargyle]

That is an adult female mite (immature mites are a transparent creamy colour and males are slightly pointed at the front).
To assess the level of infestation, the natural mite fall is taken when willows bloom in the spring (3 * 1 week sticky board counts under the open mesh floor) and a >30g sample of bees from the super in the first week of July. You can read the procedure here http://coloss.org/beebook/II/varroa/4/2

I tested mine with the soapy water solution in the first week of July and got results ranging from 4 to 10 mites per 50g sample (a bigger sample is easier to work with). This gives a maximum adult bee infestation of 2 per 10g which is well bellow the 5-10 mites where treatment is recommended. The point I am making is that you don't automatically need to treat your bees with anything. I haven't treated mine since about 1993 or 1994 so a non-treatment breeding programme can work too.

More or less exactly what I do .. but I monitor with an inspection board permanently under the hive (my hive stands allow for a 75mm drop below the mesh floor to the board so it acts as a windbreak as well as a constant indicator of what is going on - they get cleaned off more or less daily).

My colonies have always been treatment free - I've seen occasional 'spikes' in the drop on the inspection board and have done either alcohol washes or sugar rolls - which have always returned a much lower infestation level than the 'board drop' suggested. In August last year I had a huge drop of (from memory - records not to hand at present) about 25 - 40 mites a day. I was on the point of treating but did a wash and there was nowhere near the level indicated by the board. Sat and waited and a week later down to the usual 1 or 2 a day .. ocasionally as many as 5.

It takes a bit of effort to be treatment free and I am not suggesting that anyone should just stop treating ... but if your bees are close enough to be able to watch and monitor them and you are prepared to treat, if and when it becomes necessary, then some colonies can survive and thrive with some levels of varroa.

I know it's a walk on the dark side and some will accuse me of being a 'let alone' beekeeper but I'm far away from that. I like the fact that my bees are not being 'assisted' and seem to be getting along nicely. I do recognise that the easy route (and probably the one which will usually be successful) is to treat whether they need it or not and that the majority of beekeepers take this path ... but it's not the only one.

One of the key indicators of a colony badly infested with varroa is signs of weakness and disease (DWV for instance) and I am very careful to watch for any such indicators - but, my bees are in the garden and I look at them daily (not inspect - just look - activity on the landing boards and through the clear crown boards). Lots you can tell from their behaviour.