Varroa control procedures and one's responsibility to play mite shaman

[Cindi]

Finsky, eeeee gads!!!! What the heck.  Have a beautiful day, great life and health.  Cindiu

[Dane Bramage]

You eat ants in Mexico...

That's actually a Colombian delicacy = Culonas ("big-ass ants").  Taste like roasted peanuts. 

Analyses conducted in the Santander Industrial University about the nutritional value of the ants (Alfonso Villalobos et al, 1999) show high level of protein, very low levels of saturated fat, and an overall high nutritional value.

Bon Apetit!
Dane

[carol ann]

not sure this has anything to do with varroa, but I did open up my new, freebee, swarm hive today. All looks well. I will not treat unless I see mites. I wont use powered sugar.
Now that we are on to food........
I actually live in 'New' Mexico. We don't eat scorpions, (they way...to small here) or that other insect. Though I did eat ants once for. well that was when I was a girl.
Seems a bit a vegan. Pinto beans, hot green or red chili, tortillas. A fresh tomato if I can get it to grow.
Perhaps a pack rat or a robin of I was a Native. Oh wait I was born here. I haven't had to eat one yet. Though the dogs do save me from the vermin from time to time.
from my mud hut
carol ann

[Heather]

In the UK where we have found varroa resistance to Apistan and Apiguard etc, then there has been more use of Oxalic Acid solution. This treatment must be done when there is no brood -e.g. March or  October/November (the mites live, reproduce and incubate on the larvae)-and no honey on the hive that would be sold for public consumption.
The bees are unharmed and the varroa drop is very apparent within a day.
The formula is 20grams of Oxalic Acid mixed in 500mls 0f 1:1 sugar water solution.
Trickle, with a syringe, 5 mls of the formula over each line of bees between the frames in the brood box.This should use about 55mls per hive.

Wear a mask and protective gloves as fumes are nasty.
But I have treated my hives last winter and have seen no varroa this year -- so far