Keeping your bees alive through the winter is one of the greatest challenges for us New England backyard beekeepers. One of the most important steps in fall hive management is checking (and treating) your hives for the infamous varroa mite.
 |  |
Varroa destructor (Varroa mite) is an external parasitic mite that attacks and feeds on the honey bees Apis cerana and Apis mellifera. The disease caused by the mites is called varroosis. The Varroa mite can only reproduce in a honey bee colony. It attaches to the body of the bee and weakens the bee by sucking fat bodies. The species is a vector for at least five debilitating bee viruses, including RNA viruses such as the deformed wing virus (DWV). A significant mite infestation leads to the death of a honey bee colony, usually in the late autumn through early spring. The Varroa mite is the parasite with possibly the most pronounced economic impact on the beekeeping industry. Varroa is considered to be one of multiple stress factors contributing to the higher levels of bee losses around the world. (From Wikipedia)
If you find that you have a mite count in your hive that is above the acceptable threshold, you need to treat the hive and hope it's not too late for your colony. We found a high mite count in one of our hives so we decided to treat all three with oxalic acid.
What is oxalic acid? Oxalic acid is a naturally occurring acid found in plants. It became popular in Europe & Canada for treating Varroa Mites in a honey bee hive and has now been approved by the EPA to treat honey bee colonies in the United States.
To apply the oxalic acid to our bees, we use the vaporizer method. The nifty contraption I'm holding in the photo above is our vaporizer. We place some oxalic acid powder into the vaporizer, slide it in to the hive entrace, block the entrance to keep the fumes in and hook the vaporizer up to a small tractor battery. The vaporizer heats up and turns the powder to vapor which rises throughout the hive treating all the bees for mites. The gas is safe for the bees but we humans are not supposed to breathe it in, thus the respirator.
Our hives are looking pretty strong so we're hoping this helps them get through the winter. Cross your fingers for them!
What is oxalic acid? Oxalic acid is a naturally occurring acid found in plants. It became popular in Europe & Canada for treating Varroa Mites in a honey bee hive and has now been approved by the EPA to treat honey bee colonies in the United States.
To apply the oxalic acid to our bees, we use the vaporizer method. The nifty contraption I'm holding in the photo above is our vaporizer. We place some oxalic acid powder into the vaporizer, slide it in to the hive entrace, block the entrance to keep the fumes in and hook the vaporizer up to a small tractor battery. The vaporizer heats up and turns the powder to vapor which rises throughout the hive treating all the bees for mites. The gas is safe for the bees but we humans are not supposed to breathe it in, thus the respirator.
Our hives are looking pretty strong so we're hoping this helps them get through the winter. Cross your fingers for them!
RSS Feed