Varrora Mites-This small pin head size pest is responsible for may dead hives around the Unites States. It takes several years to kill a hive. The easiest way to find this pest is with tweezers and pull out some capped drone brood you should able to see them eating on the larva. At this time the only treatment is Apistan. These are strips of plastic, which are put in the hive for 6-8 weeks. There has been some resistance by the mites to this treatment and some researchers are working on essential oils such as mint oil -mineral oil to combat these mites. My experience this year has been if the hive swarms the new queen which stays in the hive appears to fail .It is my opinion that the mites are attacking the queen larva and making her useless.

Installing the Strips

Tracheal Mites - These mites are very small and only can be seen by a microscope.The live in a bees trachea and the ony method of completely killing them is menthol chrystals placed on top of the hive between the last box and inner cover which should be installed flat side up.These must be used when the temp is over 70 to vaporise the menthol crystals.

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Installing on top of hive

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