Understanding Varroa Mite Treatment: From Monitoring to Long-Term Control

What you can see is not always what matters most. Effective Varroa mite treatment starts with a simple fact. Mites can grow inside capped brood cells. By the time you find out about any of them on weakened bees, the pest infestation problem may already be in full swing.

This is why treating Varroa is not a one-time battle. It's more about keeping mite pressure consistently below damaging levels. You don't have to eliminate all of them, but maintain a safe pressure where colony can better tolerate.

In this guide, APIBUZZ reviews the major ways to keep mite populations below a warning limit. This guide compares the main ways to treat Varroa mites. It also explains when each option may fit into a wider mite-management plan. We strive to help beekeepers choose a proper plan that will work for their bee colonies.

What do varroa mites look like?

The adult female Varroa mite is easier to recognize than its size might suggest. Its flattened, reddish-brown body, about 1.1 mm long and 1.7 mm wide, is visible on adult bees. The much smaller male is pale and stays mostly with the brood. Varroa eggs are round, milky white, about 1.00 mm long and 1.5 mm wide.

Varroa mites are parasites of honey bees and feed on larvae and pupae. They usually attack the developing brood. This behavior is parasitic, causing disastrous problems for honey bees. These problems include deformities, weakness, and difficulties with flying.

These diseased young bees become forager bees, and their foraging efficiency drops drastically. Sometimes they can't even complete their foraging tasks. How poor that the whole colony has been waiting for food!

If people turn a deaf ear to what honeybees have suffered, Varroa mite infections can wipe them out entirely.

How do varroa mites spread?

Varroa mites do not move between colonies on their own. They travel with their hosts throughout their lifetime. Bee movement can quickly turn a pest problem in one beehive into a catastrophe across an apiary. Robbing and drifting bees are the most essential hosts for transmission. 

Varroa mites like to hide inside capped cells. Some newbie beekeepers may find it difficult to see. When they replace brood frames, they may mix infested and normal colonies, which can also bring in mites.

Between colonies, indirect transmission can also occur when mite-infested and mite-free foragers touch at the same flowers. Direct transmission by drifting or robbing bees is dominant; however, flower-based transmission is still quite rare. 

 

Detecting Varroa Mite Populations:

95.2% of Varroa destructor mites have evolved a habit of hiding and feeding on the underside of the bee's abdomen. This is convenient for them to easily access the bees' fat bodies.

Beekeepers are having a tough time finding them. When beekeepers check hives and see several mites on the dorsal thorax of bees, the infestation level is grave. We need quantitative mite monitoring to obtain accurate results, enabling us to administer treatment as early as possible. 

We recommend methods such as sampling with a sugar roll or using an alcohol wash. Take out 300 adult worker bees as a sample group. Calculate the infestation rate as the number of mites per 100 adult bees. Compare these results with locally recommended seasonal treatment thresholds.

Your efforts to monitor mite populations will be more fruitful each time if you are familiar with their seasonal growth cycle. You have to stay familiar with times when mite populations are likely to surge. Get a head start on monitoring in the spring and continue at regular intervals throughout the active season. Make sure to do tests both before and after you apply a treatment.

Always re-test the colony after treatment to verify that mite levels have fallen to an acceptable range. If infestation rates are still high, reconsider trying a different treatment instead of just assuming it worked. When an apiary is in different regions and climates, treatment thresholds also vary. You'd better seek advice from local beekeeping forums or consult with any experienced beekeepers. 

 

 

Mechanical and Biotechnical Varroa Control Methods

Mechanical control methods refer to physically removing Varroa mites or disrupting their reproductive cycle without using chemical treatments. Biotechnical methods utilize bee species with special abilities. These methods are part of Integrated Pest Management (IPM). Beekeepers need to check the parasite rate after each operation in order to achieve a preventive effect.

 

Drone Brood Removal

 Varroa mites have a strong preference for drone brood, which makes drone comb useful as a mite trap. Boot et al. (1995) found that Varroa mites entered drone brood cells approximately 11.6 times more frequently than worker brood cells. Drone brood also has a longer developmental period, giving mites more time to reproduce.

While wax cappings protect developing bees, they're also an umbrella for Varroa mites. Many types of miticides cannot get into or penetrate cells well enough to kill them.

By removing capped brood before adult drones emerge, beekeepers can physically remove a substantial number of reproducing mites.  This is a classic method in Europe and America, but you cannot rely on it as the sole control method.

Brood Break

You can create a temporary brood break by caging or removing the queen bee or by splitting colonies. Since Varroa mites reproduce inside capped brood cells, breaking up brood production helps keep their numbers down more quickly. In this way, you can improve the effectiveness of many treatments, particularly oxalic acid.

Screened Bottom Board:
Replace solid wood bottom boards with screened alternatives. This classic method takes advantage of natural bee behavior. This causes fallen Varroa mites to be unable to re-infest the bee population. While mite reduction is usually modest, screened bottom boards do help in an IPM program.

Powdered Sugar:
Dusting bees with powdered sugar may encourage grooming behavior and dislodge some phoretic mites. This approach is somewhat effective, but it requires a lot of work. Nowadays, few beekeepers would even consider this. 

Resistant Stock

Breeding or purchasing colonies with Varroa-resistant genetics.

Purebred American ARS Russian bees have significant resistance to Varroa mites. One of the mechanisms is that their larvae are 'unattractive' to Varroa mites, which inhibits the mites' reproduction.

VSH is a special hygienic behavior in bees. Worker bees can identify brood cells where Varroa mites are reproducing. They can open cell caps and remove the larvae inside. 

These special groups either directly eliminate or indirectly interfere with the breeding sites of Varroa mites.

 

Chemical Strategies:

To guarantee the best possible overwintering results, we should administer chemical miticides before the formation of winter bees.

Organic Treatments:

Less harsh chemicals are organic substances such as oxalic acid, formic acid, thymol, and beta acids from hops. People can extract these from plant essential oils, fruits, or secretions of some animals. They can easily be dissipated or broken down after treatment in the hive. That is, they have residues with lower persistence than those of hard chemicals.

Synthetic Acaricides:

Synthetic miticides such as tau-fluvalinate, amitraz, and coumaphos are excellent for treatment. Because some synthetic acaricides are lipophilic, residues may accumulate in beeswax after repeated use. Despite this, over time, through practice, beekeepers have learned how to reduce pesticide residues.

By routinely replacing old brood combs, you can help decrease residues in the hive. Avoid unnecessarily exposing bees to “poisoned” combs too often. Obey by using pesticides exactly as directed on the label.

Resistance Management

If beekeepers use only one substance for a long time, some mite groups may become resistant. This can reduce how well it controls the disease. This problem is common and not limited to synthetic miticides. Organic acid treatments can also lose their punch if you overuse a single treatment in a beehive.

To slow down resistance development, beekeepers should avoid repeated medications with the same active ingredient. Follow the recommended dose and duration, and monitor mite levels. Switch up products with different ways of working when it makes sense.

 

 

APIBUZZ Product Series on Varroa Treatment:

The use of multiple mite treatment methods can reduce the resistance of Varroa mites to a single drug. Different drugs perform differently under different temperature and humidity conditions in the apiary. Therefore, it is necessary to enrich your treatment methods!

APIBUZZ offers multiple options for beekeepers to administer medications to bees.  Browse our wide range of medications for bees and choose the one that suits your needs best!

APIBUZZ bee mite strips stand out as the primary product widely utilized by beekeepers. These strips have gained widespread popularity among beekeepers for their effectiveness. APIBUZZ bee strips are as follows:

 

 

APIBUZZ also provides a solution for organic varroa mite treatment. Beekeepers employ gentle chemicals to control varroa mites.

Product	Specifications	Descriptions
APITHYMO — Thymol	200g / bottle	Soft Miticide
MYTH-BEE — Oxalic Acid Powder	200g / bottle	Soft Miticide