Riddled with varroa...What on earth happened?
My mentee (recently acquired/84 years young) bought one package in April. Under another’s guidance they split it mid May. He put 3 Apivar strips in on July 1st for 42 days which I gave him after just opening the package, received this year.
August 18th, I visited to help inspect because he noticed it was a bit quieter. Outside there were newly emerged bees with DWV and covered in 3-4 mites. Beetle detritus on the landing board. Every forager bee had a mite on her. Inside there were very few bees, the marked queen (no mites on her), a small patch of larvae, patchy emerging bees with DWV, and many beetles, but not slimed.
I spoke to the package provider to see if there was possible Apivar resistance but they don’t use it. We didn’t do a mite count before the Apivar.
My guess is they robbed a mite crashing colony after the split. I’ve never seen mites like this, even on videos.
My mentee (recently acquired/84 years young) bought one package in April. Under another’s guidance they split it mid May. He put 3 Apivar strips in on July 1st for 42 days which I gave him after just opening the package, received this year.
August 18th, I visited to help inspect because he noticed it was a bit quieter. Outside there were newly emerged bees with DWV and covered in 3-4 mites. Beetle detritus on the landing board. Every forager bee had a mite on her. Inside there were very few bees, the marked queen (no mites on her), a small patch of larvae, patchy emerging bees with DWV, and many beetles, but not slimed.
I spoke to the package provider to see if there was possible Apivar resistance but they don’t use it. We didn’t do a mite count before the Apivar.
My guess is they robbed a mite crashing colony after the split. I’ve never seen mites like this, even on videos.