Plans for Mite Treatments 2006

by
Doug McRory, Provincial Apiarist

Each year beekeepers have to think about how they are going to deal with the mites. We now have several options available to Ontario beekeepers. The major change this year is that Oxalic Acid is available to beekeepers. Resistance to Apistan® and Check-Mite™ continue to spread in Ontario. It would be good if we can keep both of these products working for a long period of time over most of Ontario. In order to do that, we need to use them wisely. We need to spread out the times that we use each of them to give the mites time to redevelop their susceptibility to these products. When you use these products, you are actually running a breeding project to select for resistance to the product. If you can break the cycle of use, you break up the selection process.

For the next couple of years beekeepers should consider not using either Apistan® or Check-Mite™ to give both a chance to remain viable in the future. We now have Mite AwayII™ registered for use in Canada. A great deal of Ontario research money, time and effort went into getting this product to the point that it is the reliable treatment that it has proved to be. It can be applied when temperatures have warmed up in the spring according to the label and again as soon as the honey is removed in the fall. This can be followed up with an Oxalic Acid treatment using the trickle method of application just as the bees are packed. If beekeepers in all areas of Ontario would follow this treatment regime for the next two years we would greatly offset the development of resistance to Apistan® and Check-Mite™. After the two year period the beekeeper could do either of the hard chemical treatments again by rotating them in each second year in the fall. The reason that the fall is suggested is to keep the products as far away from the honey flow as possible to reduce the chance of residue in the honey. Formic is recommended for the spring as it also controls the Honey Bee Tracheal Mites (HBTM). HBTM are spreading throughout Ontario and is causing serious losses in some really well managed bee outfits. It sneaks up on you as you cannot visually see HBTM the way you can Varroa. It can be as devastating as the Varrroa mites.

All treatments should be followed up with some form of monitoring to determine if you have gotten a good kill of the mites. You do not want to come along later in the season and find that your bees are dying from a serious mite infestation. You may have figured out a monitoring method that works for you – ether roll, sticky boards, screened bottom boards, etc. An easy way to monitor is to collect a sample of bees in alcohol from each bee yard before you treat and another one about three weeks after you treat and send them to either Brenda Perrin or Jim Anderson and have them shake the sample for Varroa mites and slice some bees for HBTM. Call them ahead of doing the samples to get the proper methods of collection and shipping and to arrange what you want them to test for and they will tell you how much it will cost per sample. It would be good to have them check your samples for Nosema. If they come up with over 1 million spores per bee it will pay you to treat with Fumigillian.

Have a good year and do those mites right in!

The Sting
VOL.24 NO.1
Page 23
February 2006

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