Colony Health & Varroa
Allow me to start with an excellent assessment by Bee Culture’s Phil Craft (BC July 2015):
Perhaps beekeepers who have come to the craft in the last few decades aren’t aware of the effect varroa had when it first arrived on this continent and of how it earned its full name, Varroa destructor. Whatever the reason, every year, beekeepers all over the country lose colonies to mites and the viruses of which they are carriers, and they never know what hit them. They blame pesticides,or CCD, or habitat loss, and sometimes those really are causes, or at least significant factors. However, too, too often, the underlying cause is a lack of effective management, which allows a mite infestation to overwhelm a colony or weaken it to the point that it succumbs easily to other stressors. The most frustrating thing about these losses is that they don’t have to happen.
Watch Dennis vanEngelsdorp explain why mite management is critical for colony survival, and which methods work or don’t at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bm3Y4t1NwQ
Miticides 2011
Miticides 2011 Randy Oliver ScientificBeekeeping.com First published in American Bee Journal February 2011 Colony health and production these days is largely a function of varroa levels in the hives—the more mites, the more problems. It is no longer a matter of simply knocking the mites back once a year with a “silver bullet”—it is becoming...
Trial of HoneySuperCell® Small Cell Combs
A Trial of HoneySuperCell® Small Cell Combs Randy Oliver ScientificBeekeeping.com First Published in ABJ in May 2008 Introduction There has been considerable discussion as to whether “small cell” foundation (4.9mm diameter vs. the industry “standard” of approximately 5.4mm) has potential as a means of controlling varroa reproduction. Research on Africanized bees in South America indicates...
The Learning Curve – Part 1: 2009 Progress Report
The Learning Curve—2009 Randy Oliver Scientificbeekeeping.com First Published in ABJ in April 2009 Physicist Neils Bohr once quipped, “An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field.” This definition clearly excludes me from being any sort of expert, since I exuberantly continue to make...
The Learning Curve – Part 2: Killing Mites without Killing Your Bees
The Learning Curve, Part 2 Killing Mites without Killing Your Bees Randy Oliver First Published in ABJ in May 2009 “U.S. beekeepers crossed the Rubicon of pesticide application when Varroa mites were introduced in the late 1980s. They literally “tore down the fence,” as one wag put it, quickly transforming themselves from anti-pesticide fundamentalists into...
Powdered Sugar Dusting – Sweet and Safe, but Does it Really Work? Part 1
Powdered Sugar Dusting – Sweet and Safe, but Does it Really Work? Part 1 By Randy Oliver ScientificBeekeeping.com First Published in ABJ in Dec. 2008 Updated 9 March 2017 The dusting of colonies with powdered sugar as a means of varroa control has become quite popular with hobbyists. Unfortunately, there is precious little published data...
The Learning Curve – Part 3: The Natural Miticides
The Learning Curve: Part 3 Randy Oliver ScientificBeekeeping.com First Published in ABJ in July 2009 I added a number of updates on May 2015, marking 15 years of successful commercial beekeeping in my operation without the use of synthetic miticides. “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent...
Powdered Sugar Dusting – Sweet and Safe, but Does it Really Work? Part 2
Powdered Sugar Dusting—Sweet and Safe, but Does it Really Work? Part 2 Randy Oliver ScientificBeekeeping.com First Published in ABJ in Jan. 2009 One beauty of science is that it is anti-authoritarian. Physicist Lawrence Krauss put it well: “There are no scientific authorities. There are scientific experts, but there should be no authority figures whose statements...
The Learning Curve – Part 4: The Synthetic Miticides
The Learning Curve: Part 4–The Synthetic Miticides Randy Oliver ScientificBeekeeping.com First Published in ABJ in Sep. 2009 Paradise Lost The overall impact of the varroa mite upon beekeeping was recently brought home when I spent time with beekeepers on the Big Island of Hawai’i. Until recently, these lucky beekeepers enjoyed a true beekeeping paradise—abundant nectar...
The Learning Curve – Part 5: The Future
The Learning Curve: The Future Randy Oliver ScientificBeekeeping.com First Published in ABJ in Nov. 2009 “I look to the future because that’s where I’m going to spend the rest of my life.” – George Burns Miticides in Development There are a number of new varroacides currently in development by various parties—some fairly close to release....
Powdered Sugar Dusting – Sweet and Safe, but Does it Really Work? Part 3
Powdered Sugar Dusting—Sweet and Safe, but Does it Really Work? Part 3 Randy Oliver ScientificBeekeeping.com First Published in ABJ in Feb. 2009 Update 2016: although sugar dusting can indeed cause a substantial proportion of the phoretic mites to drop off the bees, in order to effectively manage varroa, dusting requires more effort and repetition than most...
Oxalic Acid: Part 1- Questions, Answers, and More Questions
Oxalic Acid: Part 1 (of 2) Questions, Answers, and More Questions Why Oxalic Acid? ©Randy Oliver 2006 ScientificBeekeeping.com First Published in ABJ in December 2006 European beekeepers, who have dealt with varroa much longer than we have, and who often face regulations that do not look favorably upon chemicals that may contaminate honey, noted that...
IPM 1 Fighting Varroa : The Silver Bullet, or Brass Knuckles?
IPM 1 Fighting Varroa The Silver Bullet, or Brass Knuckles? © Randy Oliver 2006, 2009 ScientificBeekeeping.com First Published in ABJ in December 2006 The varroa mite is the toughest challenge ever faced by American beekeepers. Our reaction to it reminds me of the five stages of dealing with trauma (greatly paraphrased from Kubler-Ross 1997): Stage...
Oxalic Acid: Part 2 Heat Vaporization and Other Methods
Oxalic Acid: Part 2 Heat Vaporization and Other Methods Randy Oliver ScientificBeekeeping.com Originally published ABJ Jan 2007 Update December 2016: I suggest that you view my oxalic acid Powerpoint presentation, which I will try to keep up to date–https://scientificbeekeeping.com/oxalic-acid-powerpoint-presentation/ In my article last month, I detailed the use of the oxalic acid sugar syrup “dribble”...
IPM 2 Fighting Varroa 2: Choosing your Troops: Breeding Mite-Fighting Bees
IPM 2 Fighting Varroa 2 Choosing your Troops Breeding Mite-Fighting Bees (Second in a series on Integrated Pest Management of varroa) ScientificBeekeeping.com Originally published in ABJ, Jan. 2007 I got tired of getting my butt kicked by varroa. My first step in getting the upper hand on the mite was to forswear the coddling of...
IPM 3 Fighting Varroa : Strategy – Understanding Varroa Population Dynamics
IPM 3 Fighting Varroa : Strategy – Understanding Varroa Population Dynamics © Randy Oliver 2006 ScientificBeekeeping.com First Published in ABJ in February 2007 What are the Population Dynamics of Varroa in a Honeybee Colony? Seasonal Factors Computer Models What Can We Do to Keep the Mite Population Under Control? Tactics Used by Mite-Tolerant Bees Acknowledgements...
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