Treatment Regimes
Treatment Regimes
Modified traditional program (without drone brood removal and without economic thresholds)
If you do not base your treatment decisions on an estimate of pest density, you will need to treat your colonies twice each year: once in the late winter or early spring and once near or immediately after the end of the goldenrod flow. However, even that may not be sufficient. Therefore, inspection for evidence of parasitic mite syndrome prior to the start of the fall flow is highly recommended, although it is not as effective as estimating pest density.
Late winter or early spring:
• Treat colonies with Mite-Away II™, Apistan® or CheckMite+®.
Late summer (about 2 weeks before start of goldenrod flow):
• Inspect colonies for symptoms of parasitic mite syndrome. Remove all marketable honey from colonies with symptoms and initiate treatment with Apistan® or CheckMite+®. Mite-Away II™ (formic acid) will not work well at this time due to the presence of large quantities of brood. Procrastination at this stage will result in the loss of your colony.
• Provide treated colonies with empty supers for fall honey production. Honey produced while pesticides are present in the hive may not be used for human consumption. However, it may be used as feed for other colonies. This allows a beekeeper to remove both the surplus honey and the winter stores from healthy colonies that were not treated during the fall flow and to replace their winter stores with surplus honey from colonies that were treated. Using this method, you save the bees and harvest the same amount of honey.
Late summer - early fall (when the goldenrod flow is about 80% complete):
• Remove surplus honey.
• Reduce colony to two, full-depth hive bodies.
• Treat with an approved pesticide. Note! Mite-Away II® should be applied after the majority of brood rearing has ended but while daytime temperatures range between 50 and 790F. In Ithaca, NY we initiate treatment with formic acid during the last week of September or first
week of October, but not earlier and not later than that.
Basic IPM program (without drone brood removal but with economic thresholds):
The best strategy for using a pesticide is to apply it only when the pest density reaches the economic threshold, that is, the level at which you must control the pest or expect to experience damage to your colonies.
Late winter or early spring:
• Treat colonies with Mite-Away II®, Apistan® or CheckMite+®.
Late summer (about 2 weeks before start of goldenrod flow):
• Estimate pest density in each colony with the ether roll.
• If an ether roll count is less than or equal to three, or if you observe any symptoms of parasitic mite syndrome, remove all marketable honey from that colony and initiate treatment with Apistan® or CheckMite+®. Mite-Away II® (formic acid) will not work well at this time due to the presence of large quantities of brood. Procrastination at this stage will result in the loss of your colony.
• Provide treated colonies with empty supers for fall honey production. Honey produced while pesticides are present in the hive may not be used for human consumption. However, it may be used as feed for other colonies. This allows a beekeeper to remove both the surplus honey and the winter stores from healthy colonies that were not treated during the flow and to replace their winter stores with surplus honey from colonies that were treated. Using this method, you save the bees and harvest the same amount of honey.
Late summer - early fall (when the goldenrod flow is about 80% complete):
• Remove surplus honey.
• Reduce colony to two, full-depth hive bodies.
• Estimate pest density in each colony with the ether roll.
• If an ether roll count is more than or equal to two, treat that colony with an approved pesticide. Note! Mite-Away II® should be applied after the majority of brood rearing has ended but while daytime temperatures range between 50 and 790F.. In Ithaca, NY we initiate treatment with formic acid during the last week of September or first week of October, but not earlier and not later than that.
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