I applied 2 Formic pro pads as per manufacturer instructions to 2 colonies for 7 days on 15 August - a large double brood colony and a single brood colony. I did a sugar shake on the one with the largest drops before I started the treatment and it showed 3% infestation. When I took the pads out after 7 days they were completely dried up with no scent of formic acid in the larger colony.
The largest colony is still dropping large numbers of mites (c 30 a day). Even if these were dead mites in cells that were just being capped when the pads were added, wouldn’t they have dropped already as the young bee would have emerged by 27 August? The smaller colony next door, the mites have significantly reduced so now dropping just 2 or 3 a day.
Had a good look through the larger one. Saw 3 mites in open worker brood cells. I don’t think they are robbing another colony as income is not more than others. Think I should use another form of treatment asap!
Sharing this as there may be experience of formic pro not being as effective on large colonies and as a watch out to others on the forum to keep monitoring drops. Comments / other experience welcome
Ps this is the first time I’ve used formic pro. I used Maqs on a couple of colonies as a beginner which seemed far stronger and caused a lot of dead bees and the queens went off lay. There were no dead bees during the treatment with formic pro and the queens did not go off lay
The largest colony is still dropping large numbers of mites (c 30 a day). Even if these were dead mites in cells that were just being capped when the pads were added, wouldn’t they have dropped already as the young bee would have emerged by 27 August? The smaller colony next door, the mites have significantly reduced so now dropping just 2 or 3 a day.
Had a good look through the larger one. Saw 3 mites in open worker brood cells. I don’t think they are robbing another colony as income is not more than others. Think I should use another form of treatment asap!
Sharing this as there may be experience of formic pro not being as effective on large colonies and as a watch out to others on the forum to keep monitoring drops. Comments / other experience welcome
Ps this is the first time I’ve used formic pro. I used Maqs on a couple of colonies as a beginner which seemed far stronger and caused a lot of dead bees and the queens went off lay. There were no dead bees during the treatment with formic pro and the queens did not go off lay