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Varroa mites: part two

Yesterday, I treated the girls with formic acid. Sounds wonderful doesn't it? Actually, for the bees, it is a critical step in fending off the mites, but it isn't a very pleasing experience. Formic acid is an organic substance that is naturally found in ant venom, hence the name (the Latin word for ant is formica), and can also be found in stinging nettles. The acid, in certain concentrations is corrosive and should always be handled with caution. When the acid is allowed to vaporize, it becomes very pungent and causes quite a deal of stress for the bees. The vaporized acid in essence suffocates the varroa mites, causing them to die. Today, I will remove the sponge towel that I used for holding the acid, from the hives, and attempt to count the dead mites that have hopefully fallen off the bees, down through the wire meshing of the floor, and onto the mite board.

Ideally, the number of dead mites will be small. This would first of all mean that my bees are generally in good shape, however at least two more treatments are necessary to be sure that the mite population has been reduced significantly to ensure proper health of the winter bees. After each treatment, the number of dead mites is recorded. One thing to add, the formic acid treatment not only kills the mites that are attached to adult bees and to larva in open cells, but it also kills the mites that are attached to pupa in closed cells as the vapor penetrates the wax capping. That means that I may even find more dead mites up to two weeks after the last treatment.

Generally speaking, formic acid treatments are not the ideal way of controlling the mite population, but it is important and essential nonetheless. The ideal way, as I mentioned in an earlier post, would be for the bees to take care of the mites themselves. I'm still a long way away from that.

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