I have never used apivar so I am looking for advice here... I always used oxalic acid for mite control but medical conditions require a change on my part.
Question: how many strips for a langstrof, typical 10 frame double deep do you use and find positive results?
Reason I ask is youtube has many videos in which the beek only uses 2 strips regardless of brood frame count.
Instructions note: one strip per 5 brood frames, up to max 4 strips per hive. Use only After the honey extraction, use latex/nitrile gloves, space at least 2 frames apart, etc.
Ok, Apivar users, I need some input. Thank you.
https://www.dadant.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Apivar-Instructions-USA-2015.pdf
Apply based on size of the population. 1 strip per 5 frames of BEES. Place the strip(s) in the middle of the cluster where the nurse bees are working. ApiVar is a contact treatment. The bees have to walk on and rub on the strips for it to work. The position of the bees may be offset in the box(es) depending on where the nest is. When the lid is lifted or boxes split or hive is tipped, the beekeeper can determine where that is, and that is where to place the strips.
Other than that tip, using ApiVar is quite straight forward and trouble free. You will notice the bees will carve a groove in the wax where the strip is. That is so they can walk around it between the frames. See that is a good thing. It means the strip is in the right place and that the bees are in contact with it as designed. The groove does not affect anything other than aesthetics.
Watch this video.
https://youtu.be/pCq_Pu1iFeo
You may, and should, consider to occasionally switch it up, including use of oxalic. To get away from the hazards of vapor method, you could use the dribble method which is also very effective.
https://youtu.be/Sp-9eD3Sgww
Hope that helps!
Thanks Mark and HP. Ill install next Saturday, remove strips end of July which wiil be 6 weeks. Then in August apply oxalic acid vapor.
I used last year July after harvest. I did 2 in each deep on doubles. Left for recommended amount of time and washed zero mites at the end. I do that then hammer in December with OA.
Some commercial guys have stated having issues with Apivar lately and are transitioning away from it.
Kamon Reynold of Tennessee Bees is doing a ?test yard? with multiple different treatments. I?m curious to see the results from that.
Quote from: BurleyBee on June 16, 2021, 02:39:40 PM
I used last year July after harvest. I did 2 in each deep on doubles. Left for recommended amount of time and washed zero mites at the end. I do that then hammer in December with OA.
Some commercial guys have stated having issues with Apivar lately and are transitioning away from it.
Kamon Reynold of Tennessee Bees is doing a ?test yard? with multiple different treatments. I?m curious to see the results from that.
I am interested in his results as well. I do not know the details of his test, but if he stared a special test yard built by moving in test hives with a shared close to equal amount of mites per 100 bees per hive, according to mite washes, it would be even the more interesting when the results do come in.