You know you have a Varroa mite issue if….

  • You have to ask what a Varroa mite looks like
  • The 24-hour mite-drop board is brown and moving
  • There are more mites on drone larva than you can count using both fingers and toes
  • There is a mite rodeo in the hive with small hive beetles being ridden like horses
  • You crush more mites than bees putting the super back on
  • You rarely have bees in the spring
  • There are dead mites on the card stock used for Apiguard™ treatment

I just adding the 2nd Apiguard™ treatment to all my hives.  This was the first time I have seen dead mites on the treatment cards. Using the recommended two 14-day treatments, I will be finished mite treatment by August 20th. The fall flowers have not yet started to bloom but should be in full bloom by late August and all of September.

Lower mite counts and fall flowers help my bees get ready for the November through March overwinter period. There is nothing I can do to help them after fall flowers are finished except keep the hives ventilated. Either they will make it or they won’t.