To many or OK?

[hmeadq]

Yesterday I pulled some comb out of my 9 frame box which the bees were making in the wrong places! Some of it had drone brood, so I took the oppurtunity to count mites in the cells.

I VERY carefully and slowly removed the purple eyed larva from each cell to count the mites...

I did 24 cells and found only 2 mites. So that is pretty good, right? With my screened bottom boards I am OK to put on the supers soon (they are almost ready) and wait to treat until fall? Or not?

[Michael Bush]

>I did 24 cells and found only 2 mites. So that is pretty good, right?

Not bad.

> With my screened bottom boards I am OK to put on the supers soon (they are almost ready) and wait to treat until fall?

I'd still monitor the tray on the SBB from time to time.

You may not need to treat at all. Or you might.

[Dave W]

hmeadq . . .

If you examined 24 drone brood cells and found 2 mites, that means you have 1 mite for every 12 cells or 8.3%. Please consider the following.

DRONE BROOD EXAMINATION
Threshold depends on the number of cells of drone brood in colony and time of year. In a colony w/ 500 cells of drone brood at the beginning of summer, if more than 10 drone pupae are found to be infested when 200 pupae are examined, then mite population could build up to a level (2500 mites) needing treatment by the following autumn.
[http://www.biosecurity.govt.nz/pests...es/control.htm – p32, Accessed 8/1/05].
•If mites are detected, treat [http://www.ent.uga.edu/bees/Disorders/Varroa_mites.htm - Accessed 6/25/04].
•2 or 3 mites per 50 pupae (4-6%) indicate a low to moderate infestation [Source ??].
•5 mites per 100 pupae (5%) indicate a moderate infestation [Ref 15, p141].

[hmeadq]

Thanks,

I'll keep an eye on them and plan to treat in the fall...

Maybe I'll try something brave and do sugar rolls for low level control through the summer.

[BjornBee]

Which ever method you use to count mites, do it the same every time. This will give you a rough indication as to what is happening in the hive in regards to whether the level are staying the same or increasing.

[Michael Bush]

As Bjorn points out, the trend is more important than the number.