Hi from Australia watching this with great interest due to the threat of having a mite invasion over here its sad to say its only a matter of time and we will be looking for something to treat are hives with. thanks heaps for sharing your knowledge of bees with us
We’re trying a similar towel impregnated treatment in ours this autumn. 50/50 glycerol, oxyalic Acid. Initial results look good. We must try everything!! Good video!!
l tried this two big pieces of sponge between the boxes.. it didn't work good in August. They covered it all with propolis and walk around... Then l switched to thinner microfiber cloth and 4 strips between the frames. That worked great, but it's a much bigger job to apply. I think those sponges would work great... the problem is that August is a propolis month.. so bees make use of it and move on. Just something to think about if it doesn't work. Maybe my conditions are too dry and hot.. so those treatments work better in spring or fall when we get some humidity
Have you a Video on it Richard !?! FOLLOW both of you guys... 😎 Did you get some good Rain in France recently ? We got a good spell of the wet stuff (rain) after a long dry Summer, here in Scotland 🏴 Best Honey so far ! 👌
Appreciate you taking time to do this Kamon. Hoping that in the next few years we continue to make advances in treating mites and get those dreaded Varroa Destructor under control. Thanks for the video. .
I have been looking forward to the info from this series, ty Kamon and others. My limited opinion the OA over time is the way to go, that will some of other treatment options it's WIN, WIN. Get the government out of the way and let us help save our bees. Sounds like there was a few extra factors for that corner hive. Ty for your time, Blessed Days...
After reading Randy's first OA extended release article in 2017, I was convinced this was the way to go and have used it every year since with excellent results. The Swedish sponge is expensive at about $1.20 each but the maximizer pads Randy used last year dropped the cost to about $.20. Those costs do not include the cost of the OA and glycerin though, but sure beat the cost of Apivar or Apiguard treatments. Randy mentioned at the HAS show last month that he even has a new material that looks promising that is about half of the cost of the maximizer pads. Richard Brickner
I believe the permission from the EPA would apply to any beekeeper in the U.S., provided your state EPA agency agrees with it. We were coordinating with that agency here in Tennessee at the time they announced that the Experimental Use Permit would not be required if we met the permit criteria. We do and our state EPA agency has allowed us to proceed. Several members of our local bee club who have enough colonies to do trials are also proceeding with the trials. Richard Brickner Columbia (TN) Area Beekeepers Association
Great information!! Thanks for sharing info about the cerrasell varroa test bottle. I got 6 of them and now i know they will be accurate. Also the wash basket is great!! Thanks to all of you!!
I am testing oxalic the same way, will do some alcohol wash later on. And yes, im swedish and smiles tath it is called swedish sponge. we say wettex. good video
Tried the oxalic acid towel method on 250 hives last summer. Followed Randy Oliver’s protocol to the tee. The result: 40% loss in untreated control & the towel treated, 0 loss in ApiVAR treated. The bees did a decent job removing the “dry” towel (they tend to proplise the “wet” towel instead of removing it), but it did nothing to the mites. No observable benefits whatsoever. This is in south Florida during summer dearth. Your results may vary.
Does it make any sense to pull a frame & spritz bees w/OA w/a bottle sprayer, similar to the dribble method? Seems to me that there would be better coverage than dribbling in between frames to get most on the upper bees.
That sounds very promising. Please keep your thinking caps on I'd love to find a simple solution. I'm going to plant a ton of thyme in my garden next year. Do bees love mint flowers or other bug repellent herbs/flowers? Seems like God gave us natural answers. I love your channel and I see how much you care. Kamon and Laurel your an inspiration. I hope I can keep going with this. If I can keep a fire going in my smoker I might live through this. I just hot stung 9 times. Healthy looking bees!! Got 2 in the back of the head and 7 on my hands for wearing the wrong gloves. I found some long gloves at Lowe's for 14 bucks. 1 Bee had an inch long of junk. Is that the amount of venom going into me?😯 I'm still a newbie. Got them in May. 1 successful split. Hope to meet you one day🐝🌼
The first sponges I did dryer no problem the second batch of sponges won’t dry the mixture a Is the same so my question is will it harm the bees if there still wet not dripping
Kamon will you go into more detail about the materials and how many per hive or per deep. Also how long will you leave sponges in the hive. What was the mixture. Thanks for all your great work.
If you find a colony without brood then obviously there is a big problem but what is the best way test a colony for mites if it has no frames of brood?
If their are Eggs, then their will be Nurse Bees. Its these that 'Nurse/Feed' the Larva, soon to be Capped Brood ! (You might have a Queen on a Brood Break... limited Capped Bees. Takes x12 to x21 Days for Workers to be raised and hatched. If no Eggs, Colony probably a Drone layer, still Nurse Bees there, but in lesser numbers. Not worth VM testing this, unless you re Queen ASAP. Hope this helps.😎 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝 Happy Beekeeping 2022. 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝 We are lucky in the UK that O/A in various ways/ application formats is a licensed way to treat VM. 👍
Here is the link for the maximizer pads we are using in Kamon's trials. www.spilltech.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10052&catalogId=10151&langId=-1&categoryId=22375&subCategoryId=10974&topCategoryId=10975&productId=21915 These were sold as a box of 100 for $83 but the shipping cost is significant. These are 15" x 19" pads that I put on a bandsaw and cut into 7.5" x 7.5" individual pads. There is a serration in each pad that you can easily tear it apart to make the two half pads used in the hive. I would suggest your area bee clubs consider purchasing a box for the members to obtain the smaller quantities they would need. Richard Brickner
Kamon; I haven’t tried the sponges but have done the blue shop towels and laid them on top of the brood. Do the bees try to tear up the sponges or just leave them alone??
l tried towels a couple of years back. A good hygienic hive will take it off in one week.. which is too fast.. than you have to put a new one. This treatment should be 70 days long.. that's why a sponge or some kind of microfiber cloth is better
Video of placing them on the hive? I used these this year for my colonies. Luckily the guy I got my bees from mixed up the ratio and sponges and gave them to me
Guys I was in my apiary yesterday in São Paulo area. Fight against the killer bees invasion in US. It’s almost impossible to work with those insects. They are so agressivas that attack my smoker and all equipments I use. They are so terrible! I’m impressive how calm your bees are.
Our protection equipments are so hard that are almost impossible to wear and do the hard work that is necessary. African bees swarm like crazy all time.
Any thought of using a treatment just while doing inspections. Anything like dried purslane or another OA containing element in your smoker? I'm sure others have tried, but wondered if in stead of using as a treatment only, if it worked as a prophylaxis during inspections like a pretreatment throughout the seasons. ?
I know the benefits of extended release OA since OA doesn’t stay in the hive very long. But isn’t that what has kept it an effective treatment for so many years. By adding extended release OA are we not simply going to give the mites an opportunity to build up resistance like they have with other treatments. Low levels of OA staying in the hive the mites will surely build up a resistance over time.
Don't substitute cheap off brand dish soap for testing varroa. It apparently does not have the same surfactants and does not kill the bees humanely. It will likely give different results in regard to separation of the mites from the bees.
@2:00 - The drift theory doesn't hold water, because mites rarely climb onto foragers, -until- the source colony is near collapse. If anything, the colony on the corner with 33 mites would be the one where mites are drifting -from-, not -to-. i.e. it would be the source of mites drifting to other colonies.
![I.N "HALLUCINATION" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/n5B5q1Hwt_U/mqdefault.jpg)
Here is the link to Ceracell's New Zealand made Varroa Wash we loved! amzn.to/3Ak0yJn
Hi from Australia watching this with great interest due to the threat of having a mite invasion over here its sad to say its only a matter of time and we will be looking for something to treat are hives with. thanks heaps for sharing your knowledge of bees with us
I was trying to figure out if this was your home yard until you said excuse the tall grass in my yard. haha
Yup it is mine! The guy working on my mower is slower than honey in December!
We’re trying a similar towel impregnated treatment in ours this autumn. 50/50 glycerol, oxyalic Acid. Initial results look good. We must try everything!! Good video!!
l tried this two big pieces of sponge between the boxes.. it didn't work good in August. They covered it all with propolis and walk around... Then l switched to thinner microfiber cloth and 4 strips between the frames. That worked great, but it's a much bigger job to apply.
I think those sponges would work great... the problem is that August is a propolis month.. so bees make use of it and move on.
Just something to think about if it doesn't work.
Maybe my conditions are too dry and hot.. so those treatments work better in spring or fall when we get some humidity
Have you a Video on it Richard !?! FOLLOW both of you guys... 😎
Did you get some good Rain in France recently ? We got a good spell of the wet stuff (rain) after a long dry Summer, here in Scotland 🏴 Best Honey so far ! 👌
Nice to see the crew all working together! Looking forward to the results.
Appreciate you taking time to do this Kamon. Hoping that in the next few years we continue to make advances in treating mites and get those dreaded Varroa Destructor under control. Thanks for the video. .
I have been looking forward to the info from this series, ty Kamon and others. My limited opinion the OA over time is the way to go, that will some of other treatment options it's WIN, WIN. Get the government out of the way and let us help save our bees. Sounds like there was a few extra factors for that corner hive. Ty for your time, Blessed Days...
Good stuff Kamon. Thanks for doing this research
Kamon would you print the recipe to this new treatment.
Thanks 😊
Great video Kamon!! I’m totally onboard with testing
I'll be watching you with great interest
Very interested in seeing the results on this. I’ve been following Randy Oliver’s research and so far it looks good. Thanks!
After reading Randy's first OA extended release article in 2017, I was convinced this was the way to go and have used it every year since with excellent results. The Swedish sponge is expensive at about $1.20 each but the maximizer pads Randy used last year dropped the cost to about $.20. Those costs do not include the cost of the OA and glycerin though, but sure beat the cost of Apivar or Apiguard treatments. Randy mentioned at the HAS show last month that he even has a new material that looks promising that is about half of the cost of the maximizer pads. Richard Brickner
Great information and effort to push forward! Thanks for posting! 👍
Awesome you guys were able to get exemption to test the Swedish sponge.
I believe the permission from the EPA would apply to any beekeeper in the U.S., provided your state EPA agency agrees with it. We were coordinating with that agency here in Tennessee at the time they announced that the Experimental Use Permit would not be required if we met the permit criteria. We do and our state EPA agency has allowed us to proceed. Several members of our local bee club who have enough colonies to do trials are also proceeding with the trials. Richard Brickner Columbia (TN) Area Beekeepers Association
I’m excited to see the results and hope this gives us a good tool to use going forward.
Great information!! Thanks for sharing info about the cerrasell varroa test bottle. I got 6 of them and now i know they will be accurate. Also the wash basket is great!! Thanks to all of you!!
I love the ceracell wash compared to the easy check! Doesn't leak, built stronger, and cheaper!
Take Care Randall!
I am testing oxalic the same way, will do some alcohol wash later on.
And yes, im swedish and smiles tath it is called swedish sponge. we say wettex. good video
Here in Vermont we got 2ee authorization so we can trial this also
Waiting on some supplies now. Good luck with your testing.
Thanks for sharing, Kamon!
Tried the oxalic acid towel method on 250 hives last summer. Followed Randy Oliver’s protocol to the tee. The result: 40% loss in untreated control & the towel treated, 0 loss in ApiVAR treated. The bees did a decent job removing the “dry” towel (they tend to proplise the “wet” towel instead of removing it), but it did nothing to the mites. No observable benefits whatsoever. This is in south Florida during summer dearth. Your results may vary.
Does it make any sense to pull a frame & spritz bees w/OA w/a bottle sprayer, similar to the dribble method? Seems to me that there would be better coverage than dribbling in between frames to get most on the upper bees.
Laboratories need to be neat and clean, er, ah, yeah, the grass...😬 Keep up the good work.
All Hail Randy Oliver
That sounds very promising. Please keep your thinking caps on I'd love to find a simple solution. I'm going to plant a ton of thyme in my garden next year. Do bees love mint flowers or other bug repellent herbs/flowers? Seems like God gave us natural answers. I love your channel and I see how much you care. Kamon and Laurel your an inspiration. I hope I can keep going with this. If I can keep a fire going in my smoker I might live through this. I just hot stung 9 times. Healthy looking bees!! Got 2 in the back of the head and 7 on my hands for wearing the wrong gloves. I found some long gloves at Lowe's for 14 bucks. 1 Bee had an inch long of junk. Is that the amount of venom going into me?😯 I'm still a newbie. Got them in May. 1 successful split. Hope to meet you one day🐝🌼
Yes Bees do like the Mint family of herb and there flowers .
I was looking for trails of sponges lol.
This video was filmed yesterday and now we know when we should begin treatment so the next video in this yard should cover that!
I noticed the Trail vs Trial comment. I was debating whether to point that out. 😅
Ah thanks guys this is what happens when you work on a video after midnight!
The first sponges I did dryer no problem the second batch of sponges won’t dry the mixture a
Is the same so my question is will it harm the bees if there still wet not dripping
Kamon will you go into more detail about the materials and how many per hive or per deep. Also how long will you leave sponges in the hive. What was the mixture. Thanks for all your great work.
Randy Oliver has about 3 vids on it on RUclips
If you find a colony without brood then obviously there is a big problem but what is the best way test a colony for mites if it has no frames of brood?
If their are Eggs, then their will be Nurse Bees. Its these that 'Nurse/Feed' the Larva, soon to be Capped Brood ! (You might have a Queen on a Brood Break... limited Capped Bees. Takes x12 to x21 Days for Workers to be raised and hatched.
If no Eggs, Colony probably a Drone layer, still Nurse Bees there, but in lesser numbers.
Not worth VM testing this, unless you re Queen
ASAP. Hope this helps.😎
🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝
Happy Beekeeping 2022.
🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝
We are lucky in the UK that O/A in various ways/ application formats is a licensed way to treat VM. 👍
Great video ! Where can I buy those sponges ? What type ? Thanks
Here is the link for the maximizer pads we are using in Kamon's trials. www.spilltech.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10052&catalogId=10151&langId=-1&categoryId=22375&subCategoryId=10974&topCategoryId=10975&productId=21915 These were sold as a box of 100 for $83 but the shipping cost is significant. These are 15" x 19" pads that I put on a bandsaw and cut into 7.5" x 7.5" individual pads. There is a serration in each pad that you can easily tear it apart to make the two half pads used in the hive. I would suggest your area bee clubs consider purchasing a box for the members to obtain the smaller quantities they would need. Richard Brickner
you using Oxalic Vap or towel? great video!
Can you please go into more detail about the OA sponges , how are they made. Thankyou
They are a cellulose based in sponge, and yes they are made in Sweden. You can find them on Ebay and Amazon. Richard Brickner
Kamon; I haven’t tried the sponges but have done the blue shop towels and laid them on top of the brood. Do the bees try to tear up the sponges or just leave them alone??
l tried towels a couple of years back. A good hygienic hive will take it off in one week.. which is too fast.. than you have to put a new one. This treatment should be 70 days long.. that's why a sponge or some kind of microfiber cloth is better
Video of placing them on the hive? I used these this year for my colonies. Luckily the guy I got my bees from mixed up the ratio and sponges and gave them to me
This video was taken yesterday. The next video we will be placing the towels!
@@kamonreynolds will watch. The method seems to work for him
Guys I was in my apiary yesterday in São Paulo area. Fight against the killer bees invasion in US. It’s almost impossible to work with those insects. They are so agressivas that attack my smoker and all equipments I use. They are so terrible! I’m impressive how calm your bees are.
Wow that is insane!
Our protection equipments are so hard that are almost impossible to wear and do the hard work that is necessary. African bees swarm like crazy all time.
@@robertobosco501 import some carnica queen every few year,some brasilian beekeeper do same thing and hawe no problem.they come to serbia ewery 2year.
How long do you leave the oxalic acid sponges in the box?
2 months is what we are going for if I am not mistaken
Any thought of using a treatment just while doing inspections. Anything like dried purslane or another OA containing element in your smoker? I'm sure others have tried, but wondered if in stead of using as a treatment only, if it worked as a prophylaxis during inspections like a pretreatment throughout the seasons. ?
Could be hazardous to the bee keeper
how so? I'd wear a mask, but the concentration of OA is pretty low in purslane. You may be correct, I don't know.
I know the benefits of extended release OA since OA doesn’t stay in the hive very long. But isn’t that what has kept it an effective treatment for so many years. By adding extended release OA are we not simply going to give the mites an opportunity to build up resistance like they have with other treatments. Low levels of OA staying in the hive the mites will surely build up a resistance over time.
Dang man, hitting the colonies with the double whammy of splits and ox extended is gonna be awesome if it doesn’t effect the mating/maturing process.
Don't substitute cheap off brand dish soap for testing varroa. It apparently does not have the same surfactants and does not kill the bees humanely. It will likely give different results in regard to separation of the mites from the bees.
✌🤗💖
@2:00 - The drift theory doesn't hold water, because mites rarely climb onto foragers, -until- the source colony is near collapse. If anything, the colony on the corner with 33 mites would be the one where mites are drifting -from-, not -to-. i.e. it would be the source of mites drifting to other colonies.