Acceptable Mite Count

[nc_beekeeper]

I'm pretty sure I would have better luck finding a needle in a haystack than trying to find a definitive answer as to what would be considered an acceptable mite count. I reached "The End" of the internet the other day searching for it... .

I put SBB's on all my hives last week and just finished up a 24 hr. mite count on my hives yesterday evening. Results are as follows.

Hive #1: 22
Hive #2: 9
Hive #3: 16
Hive #4: 25
Hive #5: 19
Hive #6: 11
Hive #7: 3


When I pulled honey a couple weeks ago one of my queens had layed a few drones in the bottom of one of my honey frames so when I cut them out I checked them for mites and sure enough there were 2-3 mites in about 1/3 of the cells. This concerened me greatly but now that I've got this information I'm not sure I'm in as bad a shape as I thought I was. I purchased enough Apiguard to treat them all but now I"m having second thoughts on treating at all.

Discuss.....

[randydrivesabus]

go to michael bush's website...he recommends treating if >50 in a 24 hour drop. he recommends not using apiguard.
http://www.bushfarms.com/beespests.htm#varroa

i am about to do a drop count but i'm going to leave the boards on for 3 days and then count and divide. if i have a problem i will look into the sugar shake which seems to be the least invasive.

[Cindi]

There is a very useful site on mite controls that you can go to.  Of course, it promotes a product called "Mitegone", but there is intensive information in this site.  Check it out.  It is good.

http://www.mitegone.com/

Have a wonderful day, great life, and good luck.  If you are seeing that many mites in the natural mite drop, you need to treat your hives, no ifs, ands, or buts.  My opinion.  But, you will have a colony collapse eventually if the mites are not treated before the winter clustering time.  Sorry, basic fact, all there is to it.  Cindi

[BMAC]

Randy I missed the part where Micheal listed to not use Apiguard.  Where is that posted?

[BMAC]

with such low numbers maybe a sugar dusting is best just to knock down the already small number of mites.

[Cindi]

The number of mites counted are only a percentage of what lies within the cells, sucking and eating the life out of the larvae.  When you see numbers of mites, you can bet your bottom dollar that there are many, many more being propogated within the cell with the baby bees.  Sometimes there can be about 5 baby mites within a cell that was laid by a single varroa mite mother!!!!   It is really quite staggaring to think about it, and scarey to boot.  Sorry, but this is true.  Have a wonderful day, great life, Cindi

[randydrivesabus]

Randy I missed the part where Micheal listed to not use Apiguard.  Where is that posted?

Apistan (Fluvalinate) and Checkmite (Coumaphos) are the most commonly used acaracides to kill the mites. Both build up in the wax and both cause problems for the bees and contaminate the hive. I don't use them.

so theres the quote from his discourse on the subject. he doesn't say not to use them but its apparent he doesn't recommend them. o wait....is apiguard and apistan different stuff? theres too many out there for me to keep track of.

[BMAC]

thanks Randy.  I thought that was what you were referring back to, I just wanted to make sure.  Especially considering Apiguard is Thymol based and that is what everyone around here is advertising to use.

Yeah easily confused though.

[randydrivesabus]

so is apiguard just a high concentration of thyme oil? i would guess that the sugar we buy is processed with chemicals. i know the time will come that i'll have to choose what to use and since i am now more confused than ever i'm hoping that this year will not be the time.

i guess everything has some kind of parasite and mites might have one.

[Mici]

i guess everything has some kind of parasite and mites might have one.

mites are a parasite so you might as well give up that hope.

[randydrivesabus]

i guess everything has some kind of parasite and mites might have one.

mites are a parasite so you might as well give up that hope.

parasites don't get parasites?

[Mici]

ummm, highly doubt it, although there were some research on some bacteria that feed on V. Mites or at least kill them, but i'm not sure if it would qualify as a parasite.

[ronbert]

RANDYDRIVESABUS

Thymol is extracted from:

1. Thyme (oil)
2. A plant from middle-east, "corum ajowan"  ( myrrh)
3. Horsemint (oil)

It is used in Listerine as an anti-fungal and anti-bacteria.

I suspect Thyme is used to extract most of the thymol used in US.

[Moonshae]

parasites don't get parasites?

They do. There are nematodes that live between the scales on fleas, for one.

[pdmattox]

Michale bush does not say not to use Apriguard.  In my opinion if you are going to treat your hives then aprigaurd is problay the most safe out of all the chems out there to use.  0 withdrawl days to put on supers which tells me this stuff can't be that bad.  If you can do the sugar shake and get results that is the way i would go first if you want to avoid chems.

[buzzbee]

Not sure,but I think apigard and apistan are two different items.
Apistan is fluvalinate while apigard is made from natural substances.

[pdmattox]

Your right ken. aprigaurd is thymol based.

[randydrivesabus]

yeah...in my post above i didn't realize they were different things. so if apiguard is non-invasive than why do people use powdered sugar?

[buzzbee]

The sugar is not ingested but promotes grooming and loosens the grip on the bees. Sugar does nothing to the mites embedded in the combs with the larvae. Not sure if apigard has any effect there either but both reduce the adult mite population in the hive.

[pdmattox]

Aprigaurd is good on the vorroa and treachel (spelling?)mites. the sugar shake(dowda method)only gets the vorroa and does like ken says, starts a hygenic behavior.