Varroa Destructor

Daylight saving time is when we start to think about treating mites for the spring here at Huskees&Bees LLC.

Varroa Destructor, AKA the Varroa Mite is a parasitic mite that hitches a ride on the honeybee. It feeds on and weakens the bee. A female mite reproduces by sneaking into a honeybee cell, while the honeybee is still in the larvae stage, before the cell is capped. Once the cell is capped, so the larvae bee can fully develop into an adult bee, the varroa mite that snuck in will lay up to 3 eggs. The eggs mature with the honeybee and prior to the new honeybee’s emergence it is typical that a mite or two attaches itself to the honeybee to feed and weaken that bee for its entire life cycle. The mites that have not attached themselves will emerge from the cell with the honeybee and proceeds to find new uncapped cells to repeat the cycle.

With this knowledge it is very clear that the varroa mite can get out of hand rather quickly. To say they can cause some damage is an understatement at best. A big enough mite infestation will result in the death of the colony.

To stay on top of this persistent issue we here at Huskees&Bees LLC treat the bees with an oxalic acid vapor a minimum of 3 times a year. Oxalic acid is an organic acid, occurs naturally in many foods, and has been approved for use on honeybees to control Varroa Destructor.

In the spring, before the queen starts laying eggs, while the colony is still brood-less, is in our opinion, an opportune time to treat. The weather looks like it’s going to be warm enough that the bees will be out flying every day this week in the Poconos. With the weather getting warmer and the honeybees breaking cluster to take their cleansing flights and start to forage for early pollen and nectar, it is time to treat. To ensure our apiaries have the strongest honeybees coming into spring, we will be treating all of our hives with an oxalic acid vapor.

We don’t give varroa a fighting chance in our apiaries.

Happy keeping friends!