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Mite Count Numbers Skyrocket AFTER Treatment
The15thMember:
I have a hive that I treated with FormicPro, along with several others, on 9/4. Their sugar roll pre-treatment was 8.7%. Today when I inspected them I noticed they were pulling some of their brood, I saw a mite on a bee, and I saw a bee with shriveled wings. I figured I'd better check to see where they were at and it was the worst sugar roll I have ever seen! There were approximately 100 mites in the roll of 600 bees!! :shocked: Using HP's correction factor for sugar rolls vs. alcohol washes, that's a 22% infestation!! :oops: Obviously my first step is going to be rolling the other colonies I treated to see where they are, as I'm concerned perhaps it was a bad batch of Formic, although the treatment seemed entirely normal. I hope that ends up being the answer, because if it's not I don't understand what happened.
The biggest problem is that it's so late in the season that I don't have a lot of options. I suppose I'll have to re-treat, but I don't know that I can trust the formic, I'd rather not use a hard chemical, and I have very few options available for purchase locally. What do you guys think I should do?
Ben Framed:
I am surprised at the high mite count Member after your using formic pro. From all I have gathered, Formic knocks them out! I have no doubt that you used it properly... This is a mystery...
CoolBees:
Wish I could offer some guidance. You live in a completely different climate than I do. My flow will begin in 4 weeks or so. Your just hitting hard winter.
My first response would be - 4 weeks of OAV. ... but it's too late in the season to help your bees because your Winter bees are already raised. And, you aren't set up for OAV. It Mite not matter now anyways. All I would hope is that some of your colonies make it thru the winter - and this hive can be "replaced" come spring time.
The15thMember:
--- Quote from: CoolBees on October 23, 2021, 08:18:43 pm ---Wish I could offer some guidance. You live in a completely different climate than I do. My flow will begin in 4 weeks or so. Your just hitting hard winter.
My first response would be - 4 weeks of OAV. ... but it's too late in the season to help your bees because your Winter bees are already raised. And, you aren't set up for OAV. It Mite not matter now anyways. All I would hope is that some of your colonies make it thru the winter - and this hive can be "replaced" come spring time.
--- End quote ---
I know, that's kind of why I'm not sure what to do. As infected as they are, I'm not sure why they aren't already dead. If I treat them again and clean up the mites, at least they have a chance, but I have to weigh the cost against the probability of it working, especially if the only thing I can get my hands on is Apivar.
TheHoneyPump:
One good thing about mites is if they are contained .. they die with the bees.
A suggestion is to assess the size of the colony cluster at this point. If the infestation is that high, they are essentially dead-bees-walking. If they do survive past the next 2 weeks, there is likely to be merely 20 percent of the bees left from what is in there now. Add in the time of the year where there are very little to mo new bees being raised for awhile, due to fall/winter. Is the population so huge now to overcome that loss level and carryon? ( I would have doubts.). If so then maybe try. If not, it may be best to consider to contain the infestation by bag em and freeze them to prevent spread if/when/as the hive crashes. It is much easier to repopulate with splits in spring into cleaned equipment than to attempt to nurse along a terminal condition and fail anyways. Imho.
As we mature in beekeeping experiences, what once presented as agonizingly tough decisions become easy, quick, and comforting.
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