Kill varoan with electricity and heat?

[edward]

 Kill varoan with electricity and heat?

From the USA, we can now offer this device suitable for National , WBC and Langstroth hives. This tool was developed at Michigan State University Department of Entomology and is varroa control without chemicals. The Mite Zapper combines mite biology with simple physics. The comb is drone size and has an embedded heating element. The mite prefers the larger drone cells and, once the queen has laid her eggs and the pupae develop, the mites inhabit the cells. Two minutes of power from a 12v battery and the contents of the sealed cell are destroyed. There is no need to open the hive during treatment. One control box will operate many mite zappers.
A notch will need cutting in your brood body/lift to accomodate the cable snugly.
Brood body not included.

http://www.thorne.co.uk/whats-new?product_id=4900

mvh edward :P

[stanisr]

Interesting, so what happens to the brood? If it is all killed, will the bees open the cells and haul out the dead larva, and start over?

[Vance G]

The bees haul out the dead.  Much cheaper and easier to put some foundationless frames in at the top of your brood nest or in it and cut the drone comb out after it is sealed.  Ity is an interesting gimmick for those with power convienient or a generator to tote around.  If it is in your budget and strikes you as fun do it. 

[BlueBee]

I haven't used them, but I did see them over at MSU last year.  They are powered from a 12volt power source which most people have their vehicles; a car battery.  As Vance says, this is just an electronic version of manual drone comb culling.  The device is called the Mite Zapper and manufactured by a company here in Michigan.  No I have no affiliation with the company and no I haven't used the product.  http://www.mitezapper.com/

The advantage of this over culling foundationless drone comb is:  You don't have to remove a bunch of heavy supers to do it.  You just plug it into a hive, zap the drone cells, unplug and move to the next hive.  This might be more geared to the commercial organic beeks rather than the small hobbyist; I don't know.

As a hobbyist with just a few hives, I have the time to cull drones as Vance suggests.

[edward]

Has anybody used it long term use?

mvh edward :P

[BlueBee]

The company that makes them just had their first production run last March, so I would venture to say not many beeks will have used it long term.  Although the zapper was just commercialized last spring, I believe the concept has been developed at Michigan State University for about 10 years.  

I've seen some research papers on the thing, probably from searching MSU, but I can't recall where for sure.  You might try googling Zachary Huang; professor at MSU.

MSU was searching the state last summer for varroa infested hives for their on going experiments.  They were paying beeks a premium for highly infested hives!

[JackM]

The bees haul out the dead.  Much cheaper and easier to put some foundationless frames in at the top of your brood nest or in it and cut the drone comb out after it is sealed.  Ity is an interesting gimmick for those with power convienient or a generator to tote around.  If it is in your budget and strikes you as fun do it. 

Yea, why go complicated when all you have to do is take out the frame and freeze it...........Sorry I give that a thumbs down

[edward]

all you have to do is take out the frame and freeze it

Why bother freezing the frame ?

mvh edward  :-P

[beyondthesidewalks]

Freezing kills the mites.  After freezing you put the frame back in the hive and the bees will clean it out.  Then maybe the queen will lay more drone eggs and you can do it again.  Supposed to really knock down the mite population with no drugs or chemicals.  I haven't tried it but know some who have.

[BlueBee]

Edward might have meant:  why go to the bother of tearing apart a hive, removing the drone comb, freezing for 1 or 2 days, tearing the hive apart again, and re-installing the drone comb so the bees can clean it out when all you have to do it power up a zapper for a couple of minutes.  The zapper kills the mites via heat and the bees clean them out so the queen can refill them with drones. 

If you have more than a few hives and wish to control varroa by drone culling, the zapper might be less labor intensive.  Vance's approach of just cutting out the drone comb is also quick and easy and would save you at least one tearing apart session.

[edward]

Ahhhummm , I was thinking why freeze them , if taken out of the hive they will die anyway.

One of the thoughts we have in Sweden is that it is more labour intensive for the bees to build new comb , this means that more bees pass the comb under construction , more chances for the varoa mite to jump into a drone cell.

And yes it may save an extra trip to the bee yard.

This method is effective early in the season to keep mites At an kontrolable level , but we also recommend acid treatments late in the season after winter feeding and when brood laying has stopped.

It is also an indicator of the amount of varoa mites in the hive if you break the drone comb apart and look for mites.

Some beekeepers freeze the comb and feed it to the small birds in the winter time , protein popsicles fore the little  :yippiechick: birdies  :yippiechick:

mvh edward  :-P

PS I have cold so my english might bee worse than usual  :thunder:

[beyondthesidewalks]

Yes, Edward, in Sweden you don't have to put it in the freezer for a good part of the year!  Just take it out of the hive and it will freeze.  Here in Texas it hardly ever freezes so we must put it in the freezer to kill the mites.  I haven't been doing too much to fight the mites here.  I have one hive that has been alive for 12 years without any mite treatments.  Of course they have superceded their queen a few times.  The brood nest gets real small in the winter and expands rapidly this time of the year.  A few times I thought they were a deadout because there was so little activity but they've made it every year.  I've tried a few splits off of them but they haven't done as well.  Maybe this year will be more promising...

And your accent comes across just fine on Beemaster! :)

[BlueBee]

Edward your English is better than some of ours! 

I don't know the answers, but I have read somewhere that mites may be more attracted to the old drone cocoons than fresh drone cells.  However what you say also seems logical as well.

I wonder how long it takes for a mite to die at room temperature?  How long would you keep drone comb out before putting it back in the hive?  Wouldn't the dead drones be more likely to be a disease vector is they've sat at room temp for days?  Dead things tend to get a little nasty as setting around for a few days!

[edward]

No I wouldn't put old dead comb back into the hive ,we usually put an empty frame without wax in the hive and let them make "free" drone cells.
When its capt we cut it out , and destroy it , and if your wife/family lets you fill the freeze with comb to feed birds in the cold winter months.
Sometimes I feed my neighbor's chickens with varoa/drone comb , got some eggs for my trouble and the chickens had a  :catchchick: feast :catchchick:

I have one hive that has been alive for 12 years without any mite treatments.  Of course they have superceded their queen a few times.  The brood nest gets real small in the winter and expands rapidly this time of the year.  A few times I thought they were a deadout because there was so little activity but they've made it every year.

Sounds like a good hive to collect :yippiechick: eggs :yippiechick: from and breed queens from.

Take good care of them and spread their DNA  ;)

mvh edward  :-P

[edward]

 8-)

[beyondthesidewalks]

"Sounds like a good hive to collect  eggs  from and breed queens from."

I raise queens the lazy way, by doing splits.  So far the progeny have not lived up to the survivability of the mother hive.