Using apistan strips in winter??

[Morphic]

OK, well a friend beekeeper of mine, says he puts apistan strips in his hive during the winter. Now I can see how this would be goodsince u arent harvesting honey or anything to get in the way, but the only downfall is when u need to remove them, and opening hive during winter months still. What do u all think? This is the end of my first season.

[Michael Bush]

I'm not sure exactly what your queastion is. But if you do nothing about Varroa you will eventually lose your bees. You need to be doing something.

The first thing I would do is monitor the mites. That way you can get a handle of whether you need to do something right now or not. The second thing I'd do is form a long term plan on what you will do to control the mites.

Some mite control is a long term kind of "treamtent" such as:

FGMO fog to control the mites. (there are now several variations of this)
Small Cell. (Natural sized brood cells)
Powdered sugar dusting.

If you need to do something more quickly then you may need a treatment to kill virtually all the mites quickly.

The two conventional poisons are:
Checkmite
Apistan

Both of these are finding more resitant mites and they are failing more often.

I have used Apistan and had it work and the last time I used it it failed. I have never used Checkmite. It is a very nasty chemical.

Less conventional treatments:

Formic acid
Oxalic acid

The Formic acid requires warmer temps than we have here now.

The Oxalic acid is very effective and can be done most anytime, but is very effective once brood rearing has ceased. It kills virtuall all of the mites not sealed up in brood cells.

As far as leaving Apistan in all winter, I think it's a very bad idea for a lot of reasons.

If you use Apistan you should carefully follow the directions as precisely as you possibly can and that would NOT involve leaving them in all winter.

Also, if you use Apistan you should monitor the mite levels before, during and after so you can see if it was really efffective or not.

[jfischer]

The answer is muc less complicated than
all that. The answer is found on the
label (or istructions) for the pesticide:
http://www.apistan.com/msds_specimen/apistan_label.html

"... For best chemical distribution, use
APISTAN when daytime high temperatures are at
least 50º F..."

"...Effective control may be achieved by
treating hives in the spring before the
first honey flow and in the fall after the
last honey flow. Do not remove strips from
hive for at least 42 days (6 weeks). Do not
leave strips in hive for more than 56 days
(8 weeks)."

So, if "winter" means what I think it does,
he is not controlling the varroa due to low
temperatures. The low temps can result in
less bee movement, less contact with the
strip, and, as a result, a subleathal dose
resulting in apistan-resistant varroa.

But opening the hive "in winter" is not
going to kill bees as long as you are quick
about it. In places where "engine block heaters" are required, opening the hive in
winter is not suggested.



[This message has been edited by jfischer (edited October 08, 2004).]