Mite management
by Ruhl Bee on 08/30/13
If you have not treated your hive for varroa mites yet, you can still do it. Eliminating mites at this time of year helps the colony go into winter in the best health. Numerous treatments are available, ranging from completely natural methods to hard chemical treatments. Powdered sugar dusting helps remove phoretic mites but does nothing to brood mites. Apiguard works well and is considered on the "softer" side of the range of mite treatments. Its active ingredient is thymol, which is a component in oil of thyme. Acid based products such as formic acid are very effective but are easily incorrectly applied. Always ventilated the hive well when using this treatment. Systemic miticides such as Apivar are effective, but certainly not for the natural/organic beekeeper. Regardless of the treatment method you prefer, the most important thing is to do it right away.
