To treat the bees, I will be using this Lorob Bees Oxalic acid vaporizer.
I have a video of a treatment I did back in August using this vaporizer.
In the video I had some rather cumbersome entrance reducers. I replaced them with the one shown here (green). This allows me to leave them in-place as I have access to the small hole used to insert the vaporizer.
All I have to do is remove the hole plug and insert a small entrance block (white).
After each treatment, I will remove the varroa tray and take note of the mites that drop.
The tray will be cleaned and oil added so I get a fresh count every 24 hours for 5 days.
The mites will drop for three reasons.
The Oxalic acid causes the tine suckers on their feet to fail.
The Oxalic acid causes the bees to groom themselves.
The Oxalic acid kills the mites. Since most if not all of the mites I observed were dead, I suspect this is the most common reason they drop.
Treatment 1 - 10-9-22
On this first treatment of the series, I used 1 tsp of Oxalic acid to fill the cup.
The plugs were removed, and the front entrances blocks were installed.
I kept the entrances plugged for 10 minutes, then opened them back up.
Note that before starting the treatment, I cleaned all the bottom trays and added a light coat of vegetable oil.
24 Hour Mite Drop
Monkey 1
This is a 2x10 hive that is very strong.
Note that every spec is a mite. The following is the entry in my journal.
“Cleaned tray. Had 800+ mites, too many to count”
Monkey 2
This is a 2x12 hive. The honey super only has 3 frames of honey directly above the nest area.
Note that every spec is a mite. The following is the entry in my journal.
“Cleaned tray. Had 800+ mites, too many to count”
Monkey 3
This is a 1x12 hive. The hive is well filled out.
Note that every spec is a mite. The following is the entry in my journal.
“Cleaned tray. Had 800+ mites, too many to count”
Summary
About the only thing I can say is there was a significant number of mites on the first day, just too many to count.
48 Hour Mite Drop
Monkey 1
“Cleaned tray. Had 800+ mites, too many to count”
Monkey 2
“Cleaned tray. Had 800+ mites, too many to count”
Monkey 3
“Cleaned tray. Had 800+ mites, too many to count”
Summary
Keep in mind the trays are cleaned after each inspection, so this is the number mites that fell in addition to those on the preceding days. This shows there is still a considerable mite drop 48 hours after the treatment.
72 Hour Mite Drop
Monkey 1
“Cleaned tray. Had 800+ mites, too many to count”
Monkey 2
“Cleaned tray. Had 800+ mites, too many to count”
Monkey 3
“Cleaned tray. Had 800+ mites, too many to count, but it does look like less than the day before.”
Summary
Still had a significant mite drop a full 72 hours after the treatment.
96 Hour Mite Drop
Monkey 1
“Cleaned tray. Had 368 mites”
Monkey 2
“Cleaned tray. Had 800+ mites, too many to count, but it does look like less than the day before.”
Monkey 3
“Cleaned tray. Had 130 mites”
Summary
While the mites continue to drop 96 hours after treatment I do see the drop count dropping.
120 Hour Mite Drop
Monkey 1
“Cleaned tray. Had 160 mites”
Monkey 2
“Cleaned tray. Had 800+ mites, too many to count, but it does look like less than the day before.”
Monkey 3
“Cleaned tray. Had 33 mites”
Summary
Still getting mite drops, but will do another treatment today.
Treatment 2 - 10-14-22
This is the second treatment 5 days after the last. I used the same amount of Oxalic acid and the same procedure.
24 Hour Mite Drop
Monkey 1
“Cleaned tray. Had 800+ mites, too many to count”
Monkey 2
“Cleaned tray. Had 184 mites”
Monkey 3
“Cleaned tray. Had 32 mites”
Summary
Went into this one with less mites and it shows. The first hive, however, did have a lot of mites drop.
48 Hour Mite Drop
Monkey 1
“Cleaned tray. Had 502 mites”
Monkey 2
“Cleaned tray. Had 94 mites”
Monkey 3
“Cleaned tray. Had 18 mites”
Summary
I now see a significantly less of a mite drop.
72 Hour Mite Drop
Monkey 1
“Cleaned tray. Had 130 mites”
Monkey 2
“Cleaned tray. Had 38 mites”
Monkey 3
“Cleaned tray. Had 10 mites”
Summary
Really starting to see all the mite counts dropping.
96 Hour Mite Drop
Monkey 1
“Cleaned tray. Had 29 mites”
Monkey 2
“Cleaned tray. Had 8 mites”
Monkey 3
“Cleaned tray. Had 2 mites”
Summary
I am really happy with the results.
120 Hour Mite Drop
Monkey 1
“Cleaned tray. Had 13 mites”
Monkey 2
“Cleaned tray. Had 4 mites”
Monkey 3
“Cleaned tray. Had 2 mites”
Summary
Will be doing another treatment today.
Treatment 3 - 10-19-22
This will be the final treatment in the series.
24 Hour Mite Drop
Monkey 1
“Cleaned tray. Had 16 mites”
Monkey 2
“Cleaned tray. Had 9 mites”
Monkey 3
“Cleaned tray. Had 2 mites”
Summary
At this point I feel I have really knocked the mite population down to almost normal.
48 Hour Mite Drop
Monkey 1
“Cleaned tray. Had 16 mites”
Monkey 2
“Cleaned tray. Had 1 mites”
Monkey 3
“Cleaned tray. Had 3 mites”
Summary
I think hives 2 and 3 are down to regular grooming mite drop numbers.
72 Hour Mite Drop
Monkey 1
“Cleaned tray. Had 4 mites”
Monkey 2
“Cleaned tray. Had 3 mites”
Monkey 3
“Cleaned tray. Had 1 mites”
Summary
Even hive 1 has dropped to the levels of the other two hives.
96 Hour Mite Drop
Monkey 1
“Cleaned tray. Had 3 mites”
Monkey 2
“Cleaned tray. Had 2 mites”
Monkey 3
“Cleaned tray. Had 2 mites”
Summary
Not much can be said at this point.
120 Hour Mite Drop
Monkey 1
“Cleaned tray. Had 5 mites”
Monkey 2
“Cleaned tray. Had 2 mites”
Monkey 3
“Cleaned tray. Had 1 mites”
Conclusion
While this was not a scientific set of observations, it does give me more data points for future treatments. I am happy with the results as I know I have knocked down the mite numbers for winter.
These treatments were completed near the end of October. I was considering doing a single treatment at the end of November to see what the initial drop count is.
Be sure to check out my Building a Slovenian Hive book series.