Winter treatment of varroa with Oxalic Acid
Winter treatment of varroa with Oxalic Acid. DEFRA – managing varroa The fundamental aim of Varroa control is to keep the mite population below the level.
Dec 13, 2015
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Winter treatment of varroa with Oxalic Acid
DEFRA – managing varroa
The fundamental aim of Varroa control is to keepthe mite population below the level where harm islikely, (known as the economic injury level),therefore maintaining healthy colonies of bees forthe production of honey and other hive products,and for pollination. It is not necessary to kill everysingle mite for effective control and it is notusually desirable to attempt this. However, themore mites that are left behind, the quicker theywill build up to harmful levels again.
Phoretic mites are more vulnerable to treatment. Mites under wax cappings are hard to kill.
Drone Brood Uncapping
Key Fact
When a colony has brood, around 80% of the mites are in the brood cells and only 20% are on the bees.
Good scenario Bad scenario
Mite Numbers Mite numbers
January 10 100
February 10 100
March 20 200
April 40 400
May 80 800
June 160 1600 point of
July 320 3200 colony
August 640 Treatment 6400 collapse
September 50
October 100
November 100
December 100
January 10 Treatment
Mite Numbers Amount of Percentage of
sealed brood (cells) pupae
In the colony affected by varroa
January 100 0 0
February 100 2000 5
March 200 6000 3
April 400 12000 3
May 800 20000 4
June 1600 20000 8
July 3200 15000 21
August 6400 8000 80
Key fact
The honey in a collapsing colony will be robbed out by neighbouring colonies. They will take home the honey along with thousands of mites from the collapsing colony.
A healthy colony with a low mite count can reach a critical level of mites in a few days.
To treat 4 colonies
Mix 100ml of water with 100 g of sugar
Accurately weigh 7.5g of Oxalic acid dihydrate powderAdd to the solution and mix thoroughlyThis will produce 165 ml of solution which should be enough for at least 4 colonies
5ml of the solution is trickled over each seam of bees, ie a colony with 7 seams of bees will require 35ml of solution.
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