Hopguard against varroa and other mites - your experience is requested?

[ginn68]

Michael Bush,

I did a trial on one of my higher hives today. I powdered sugered the brood frames today and added some syrup with eo's. I will give it a day or two and repeat the 24 hr drop measurement.

[arcowandbeegirl]

This is an update on my mite counts and treatment with hopguard strips.

The original hive
7-15-11 3 day mite count of 62. Treated with hopguard strips on 7-22-11 2 per brood box.
8-2-11 2 day mite count of 6. 9-6-11 3 day mite count of 37.
10-5-11 2 day mite count of 179

Swarm hive
6-30-11 3 day mite count of 10, 8-2-11 2 day mite count of 12, 9-6-11 3 day mite count of
70. 9-8-11 treated with hop guard strips 2 per brood box. 10-5-11 2 day mite count of 103

Russell hive
9-6-11 3 day mite count of 108
9-8-11 hopguard strips applied 2 strips per brood box. 10-5-11 2 day mite count of 49

All counts done with sticky boards, natural drop

[ginn68]

Interesting. Do you plan to retreat? The rebound is high.

[arcowandbeegirl]

Yes, early on, the mite count didnt build up as fast, but the last few times, it surely did. I am going to retreat, but am undecided what to use. I had read another post about applying the hopguard strips again a week later. I would like to use something else, but dont know what to use. I dont have to worry about honey supers, because I have removed them. I am concerned though about the hive with the highest mite count (179), that I might need to take action quick for them. What do you other beekeepers think?

[ginn68]

Is everyone else seeing the lack of sustainable mite reduction after hopeguard treatments? It almost seems it doesn't have the knock out power.

[rrussell6870]

You guys are grading by natural drop counts, which can be very misleading... try an ether roll to get a more accurate accounting...

Keep in mind that the drop rate should rise immediately, then get lower, then rise again ass each wave of brood emerges exposing the mites to the treatment...

You may be seeing something more like the majority of the mites that were alive, instead of just a percentage of them... an ether roll will let you know.

[arcowandbeegirl]

Yes, I bet you are correct R Russell. Just a little more info. I talked to Mann Lake about the Hopguard strips today. It says you can use them 3 times. They said for maximum efficiency a person could treat then 7-10 days later, reapply (2 strips per brood box), then in 7-10 days later reapply. They say that would get the emerging brood.

[beemandan]

It says you can use them 3 times. They said for maximum efficiency a person could treat then 7-10 days later, reapply (2 strips per brood box), then in 7-10 days later reapply.

Which translates into 6 strips and three visits for a full treatment regimen. They're going to have to have a pretty steep quantity discount......and I don't see one listed in their online catalog.

[Katharina]

I like the hopguard, it is easy to apply. It does work well, but you have to do the progressive weekly treatment for 3 weeks in a row or the strips may dry up and you miss a brood cycle. This means 4 strips per double deep hive per week. It may be pricey for some. For me the ease of use and no nasty smell, plus it is a food grade product.

[cklspencer]

I felt it worked well for its design. Hopsguard is not going to kill the mites under your capped brood. It will only kills the one on the surface. Hopsguard works great when your hive is broodless. I did some summer treatment to monitor the effects and the rebond. It was a good way to knock them back durning the summer but was not effective enough to insure it would not have an effect on winter brood. I did go back later and applied some late season treatments. By late season I mean later than when we would apply our typical treatment in preperation for winter. The results were awesome. Lack of brood ment that all mites were exposed to the treatment. temps were in the low 60's during the day and in the 40's at night. Although a proper treatment should be done before the raising of winter brood I did find this product to be highly effetive for the person who waits until the last min. or for a quick treatment during a flow.

[Me Beeing Me]

I had a mite drop of about 100 after a 48 hour period (natural drop). Using the University of Manitoba's economic threshold (http://www.capabees.com/main/files/p...athreshold.pdf), if I take this count and divide by the number of bees I have in the hive, I get .0050%. The economic threshold for fall is 10%. Anything greater than, you should treat. If it is smaller, no treatment is necessary.

So initially I was concerned and even ordered the Mite Away strips. But after seeing this report and the economic thresholds, I will just sit tight.

Does anybody disagree with this research based on their past experiences? The data goes back 6 years and I know a lot of people on this site have been beeks for decades. Experience may trump scientific studies.....

[joecali]

Thanks for the link to the study. At first glance it seems very well done. My question to you is your percent infected. One of the charts list 33-43 mites in a 48hr period as correlating to about a 6% rate by the alcohol method from which they determined their treatment threshold. So it would seem your level is something more than 6% but I would guess less than 10%. My comment is that this is a natural system and although I understand the utility of a treat don't treat threshold I doubt it is that black and white in a natural system so I would take issue with the < 10% don't treat and >10% must treat. Then there is the questions of tracheal mites. They mention that if you have both you should treat. Have you checked for them? I just don't want you to have a false sense of security without full information. In the interest of full disclosure my personal bias is to lean towards treatment when there is doubt. I know others on this forum present a well reasoned case for having the opposite opinion. FWIW, Joe

[Me Beeing Me]

Thanks, Joe.

I don't know how to check for tracheal mites

[joecali]

Me Beeing Me,

It is not easy. A university extension service may be the easiest place to start. There are some good web resources that you can do a search for.(I would start here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yv4zzGv_x_Q and then follow their links). In short it involves dissecting the bee and looking in the trachea. Best if you have access to a dissecting microscope. If you do this video will talk you through it! Joe

[jbeard]

I am an organic gardener. I keep fish mainly organically, very few meds, no additives (except in my reef tank and they are necessary there) I cannot bring myself to order a product I have to wear a breathing mask to use, so that knocks out mite away strips. Apiguard sounds too much like an insecticide, bees are insects, and I've read threads that suggested the queen takes off after treatment. I'm having enough trouble, have had enough trouble.

I found 5 mites on my sticky after my last powdered sugar treatment, which is pretty low. But the bees are low on provisions, I will be feeding, and that is not the same nutrition as real honey and real pollen. So I would like to take them into winter without the mites. I want the BEST treatment to be effective and not harm my bees.
Dadant of course says Hopguard doesn't make a difference, but they don't sell it either.

So I'm looking for a few product reviews, and I'll bet I'm not the only one wondering. Does it work, how were the bees afterward?

Gypsi

It worked great on the hive I treated. I was getting a natural drop of over 300 mites a day on a stickyboard before treatment. Over 3000 mites dropped the first day after treatment! I waited 10 days and treated again and got another large drop. Within another week, I was only getting a natural drop of 4 or 5 mites a day. The bees didn't seem to mind the treatment at all. This was last October. The hive was split into 3 this spring and all are doing great.