Mite Infestations Are Wiping Out Hives

“Greetings, having had a full day at the apiary today, and being near the time where i can finally kill them all in a brood-less hive I took my time to see how varroa behave when adhering on a live bee. -They can walk way faster than i expected finding their way into the crevice between the abdomen of the bee rendering them virtually invisible -It's extremely hard to physically dislodge a mite from the bee body just by sliding it off with your fingers, you need to pinch it off from below with”

“2nd year beekeeper, located in Western North Carolina. We did a mite check in late August, one hive had 2 mites and another had 5 mites. We have been treating the 5 mite hive with Apiguard and completed the second treatment a little over a week ago. We did a mite check today, and the hive that had 0 mites in June and 2 mites in late August had 40 mites today. The hive that just finished an Apiguard treatment had 10 mites. The 40 mite hive had torn-up brood from preventative hygiene and a low bee”

“Hello all, This is my second fall with my hives. I was wondering what I can expect with the Queens slow down in laying. I don't recall such a steep decline last year as this year I'm seeing maybe a tennis ball sized surface on one frame of bees. All my hives are flowing out of their boxes there's so many bees. Upon an inspection yesterday I only found one queen and one hive with eggs out of four hives. Of the other two I found a handful of capped or emerging brood and no eggs/larvae”

“I treated last week single round of OA vapor 2grams per deep. Some got a bit more because my vaporizer is a piece of shit and likes to clog. I’m running 11 hives and one nuc from a late swarm catch. Fast forward yesterday I transferred the nuc to a 10 framer. Well…. No queen. No eggs. Just larva a single capped cell, and capped brood plus plenty of nectar, honey, and pollen. Long story short my nuc swarmed either from high mite loads prior to my treatment, lack of space (maybe), or they just did”

“I’m in Denver and so far bees thankfully have been doing wel. Been keeping up with my mite control, though doing a check last week I saw one right on a bee! I’m hoping my OA vapor treatment coming up this week helps before winter. To be safe, should I run some Apivar strips this late in the season? Or is it okay? It’s been warm and will be still. submitted by /u/I_had_corn [link] [comments]”

“This is my first year at beekeeping. I have 2 hives, and for the life of me I cannot find the queen in either. I do have brood cells at different stages in both hives, so I have to believe the queens are in each. I can’t do an alcohol test for mites without securing the queen first, so I’m thinking about just treating for mites without securing the queen, with the assumption that mites are present since it seems to be a nearly universal problem in my area. (Worcester County, MA). I would probabl”

“Selden, Ks first year beekeeping. Alright, so started in May with 2 hives and down to 1. I really want them to survive the winter, but i cannot for the life of me find the queen. So should i just treat and hope for the best? What else should i be doing to prepare for winter? i am planning on it being a very wet winter, due to the super el nino, it always makes it much wetter where i live. submitted by /u/megalegann [link] [comments]”

“I treated both my hives with formic acid about two weeks ago. The first hive had a lot of bee death, but they’re fine and there’s capped coney, pollen and brood The second has no brood and no honey just some nectar. I don’t know if it’s possible that the queen died or that she took a break from laying. I couldn’t find her, though she’s not marked and I couod have missed her. Either way, this hive is not doing well. This morning I added 2 to 1 syrup and my plan was to check back in about a week t”

“New-bee. Virginia. Just finished 4 weeks of ApiGuard. Only had one mite in alcohol test prior to. Two full deeps, the top is full of honey. These pics are from the lower deep. Concerned about brood pattern and what appears to be clear liquid in a lot of cells. Didn’t open any or test for AFP because I wanted to zoom in and look at the pics first. Queen was spotted and appears healthy. Did not see new eggs or larvae though, but may need to look again. Lower deep has one mostly unused frame, 3 or”

Eastern Connecticut submitted by /u/WitherStorm56 [link] [comments]

“For context I started beekeeping for the first time in April this year and I’ve had tons of problems with my bees since I started. I found like 6 bees with solid orange masses on their butts and tummy’s, and I am unsure what it is. They could barely move like they were petrified/lethargic. I am thinking compacted poop, I have had a lot of SHB beetles but this hive had it under decent control now that I’ve done a bunch of traps and natural treatments. If anybody has seen this or knows exactly wha”

“PNW. Only a second year beekeeper with 7 hives but questioning why I should take the time and risk of killing the queen doing an alcohol check? I have an oxalic acid vaporizer which makes it easy. It’s my understanding mites can’t get resistant genes to the oxalic acid. submitted by /u/DavyCrockPot19 [link] [comments]”

“First year beekeeper in Eastern WA (7a). At the beginning of August I did my first mite test and was incredibly disheartened to find my lone hive at 13.5%. I was all but resigned to my first hive not surviving the winter. Luckily I had the Apiguard ready to go, and about a month and a half later, I was so excited to see the mites down to .5%! That being said, how often should I continue testing for mites into the fall/winter? submitted by /u/ejkru [link] [comments]”

“Seems like a LOT of mites-way more than last year after round 1. The hive today had about 10 frames of honey (4 deep, 6 mediums + some on perimeters of other frames) some larvae solidly on two frames and sparse amount (maybe 1/10th full) of capped brood on about 8 frames, overall healthy looking bees. About 3 wks ago I saw some frames full of capped brood. Today my overall numbers seemed a little low compared to our other hives. We did a 2nd OA tx tonight and plan to do 3 more at about 5 days ap”

“Is the left box a swarm getting ready to depart? It’s a swarm I hives in June. Or is that just bearding and tryna get to the syrup? submitted by /u/Available-Nail-4308 [link] [comments]”

“I recently swapped out my regular bottom boards for screened ones as my bees were bearding increasingly and there was a growing presence of small hive beetles. Fast forward a couple of weeks there is a pile of loose material under the hive that has piled up. Then entering the hive, the bottom deep was filled with what I understand to be wax moth webbing? I immediately went into react mode (sorry didn’t get a pic of what it looked like) and assessed the bottom deep as a loss. The second photo is”

“I pulled my honey the first week of August and then put in my Apivar 2.0 strips to knock the mites back hard for the fall. At the time it was clearly a dearth as well, so I fed 2:1 syrup for about ten days until I saw they were filling things up in the hive really well--I didn't want to crowd them too early in the fall, and I knew we had a our fall wildflower bloom coming on. Well, a week ago I checked and my strongest hive--the one on the right in the photo--had completely stuffed their upp”

“Dear Bot, I am NOT looking for medical advice. I took Benadryl and will wake up tomorrow. I have three hives from last year, plus a swarm from one of them that I caught. Harvested honey from the three hives about 3 weeks ago. We were still in the Goldenrod blooming season, so I figured let the bees be. It rained heavily for the past week. Today is the first day the clouds finally broke. I went to apply oxalic acid strips before it's too late. The caught swarm looks perfect one full deep of h”

“New beekeeper in south central Alaska. Yesterday I moved a hive into a new homemade box for the winter. The hive is the same size and I moved all the frames over from their old hive. Now they are bunching up, and when I opened the top of the hive they poured out. I’m trying to figure out what happened and how to fix it. Did I block the entrance, kill the queen, or something else? submitted by /u/Bumberpuff [link] [comments]”

“I am very new to beekeeping (first summer), in SW Ohio. Had / have 2 hives. Inspected today and both queens are gone and there is no bread or larva. Almost no resources. It’s been very hot here. There are still tons of workers and drawn comb. I did see a couple adult hive beetles, no larva and put some traps on the hives. I’m at a loss regarding what happened and what to do. Should I try to requeen this late in the season? Give up and try again next year. They were extra grumpy but seemed strong”

“One of my colonies decided to get rid of a queen during one of my rounds of apiguard. They had a really high mite load at the start of treatment 17 iirc at the start. I have another new queen that they got combined with. I avoid much fighting even in September by dumping some syrup on them and popping the queenless hive on top. submitted by /u/Standard-Bat-7841 [link] [comments]”

“Today I did a mite wash and had 1 out of 300 1 out of 200 and 6 out of 300 on my 3 hives. (The first had a swarm and the 2nd is a split off the 1st.) Anyway, when should I do a mite wash again and when should I be good to stop for winter? Details - the third hive has been going stong since early April. I removed the supers from all, knocked down the 2nd and third hives to single deeps from double deeps as they weren't pulling comb like I had hoped and hive beetles were starting to be a probl”

“I'm a 4 year beekeeper in South-Western Connecticut that took a 20 year break and I'm currently on year 2 of my comeback. I had a hive trick me in August. ( Exactly 21 days ago.) I came back from vacation and thought I had accidentally killed my queen because there were what seem to be emergency Queen cells present. They were middle frame and did not look like swarm cells. Lots of capped brood, no eggs or larvae at all. Well, it turns out they were getting the queen skinny for flight and”

“I used this product last fall due to varroa mites. My bees ate all of their winter stores this past spring. Is it ok to harvest the honey out of the frames that were in the hive since it is all new honey? submitted by /u/lightcon_consumed [link] [comments]”

“Northeast Georgia 2nd year 3 hives Is this mite damage I am seeing? This hive also had 3 practice queen cells. I am having a hard time with hive beetles as well, if that factors in. I have oil and cotton sheets with pollen traps. Hoping that will help. https://preview.redd.it/d18ymz3f04nh1.jpg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cb3f4d7356ae32912141af06992fc4a300a68116 https://preview.redd.it/qtcis14f04nh1.jpg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=074b0fa0a93a025a66b44c946149”

“Doing the first extraction of the year (Queensland, Australia) and have found that my bees have been storing varroa mites in the capped honey cells. Anyone else seen this? Edit: I did see the brood, no I did not take any honey from the frame. The question was about the mites in the cells… 🤦‍♂️ submitted by /u/lordspotty [link] [comments]”

“I removed my honey supers today and now there is a 8 frame deep and two mediums. Bees are pouring out everywhere! Also bearding (it’s hot today). They look so crowded. Is it okay to leave them like this going in to winter. Also I have to treat for mites. Can I use the strips now or is it too late? I am in Michigan. I am a second summer beekeeper. This is my first year harvesting honey submitted by /u/PitifulPolicy7266 [link] [comments]”

“Hi all, mid July one hive had a >1% mite rate. Mid August it was 8.67%. I presume they must have gotten into something for it to jump so fast, so I did a Formic Pro treatment on all my hives. 12 days into the 14 days of treatment, I saw this goopy stuff with TONS of wax moth larvae leaking out the bottom. The hive had (seemingly) healthy bees/brood/eggs/resources mix when I did the mite check in August, with no signs of wax moths. I took off one honey super when I placed FP on, and left the o”

“Got this young queen this year. She has been laying eggs with a great pattern but now she is not laying in the top deep. The hive has a honey super, and 2 deeps. She's only laying eggs in the bottom deep. I removed the honey super so there are just 2 deeps now in case it was because she was only laying where it was warm. I'm in Denver so not sure because of the recent rain or something else might explain why she is not laying well. What do y'all think? submitted by /u/Car”

“Hello all, I wanted to get some opinions about my current situation. I have two hives atm, One doing fairly well, it has about 4/5 brood frames and just introduced a super but slow to draw comb. My other hive is whats causing me problems, they have plenty of nectar and pollen but the queen has seemingly stopped laying. When first getting these hives back in May, this hive was originally doing very well. Drawing comb quickly and having several brood frames. At this moment they only had about 1 fr”

“I think I have Tropilaelaps mites in my hives. I'm in Georgia ,Caucasus and I'm seeing small mites in/around the brood cells. Has anyone dealt with Tropilaelaps ? How did you confirm it, and what treatment worked for you? submitted by /u/Imaginary_Food_7102 [link] [comments]”

“Hive beetles too over and I believe killed my new VSH Queen that I was trying to introduce to the colony. Two days later I go in to make sure they accepted her, and she was dead and so was her entourage. When I removed her from the cage that's when I noticed tiny white worms all over her and the cage and sugar plug!! At this point it's too late to try and requeen. I have removed the honey ceiling and a few of the honey frames that were not dark in color and put them all in the freezer. S”

“Im a beekeeper 4 months in SE Wy. My son spotted this bee outside of a split I did with a bunch of supercedure cells Sunday. Would this be one of the queens? Feel free to poke fun. Thick skin here. submitted by /u/Iorek0317 [link] [comments]”

“random pic of my hives from early summer because they are pretty *Hello - this is my second year of owning hives. I live in Southern Ontario - 6a. My first hive two years ago failed so this year I got two NUC colonies I started in June . They were amazing and managed to fill a whole deep each and a medium super full . I put on another super on top to prevent swarming but did not get much in terms of comb or honey . I have FORMIC PRO strips ready to put on and was wondering if I would be able to”

“Hello! I just noticed this pile of buildup right outside my hive. Just curious if others have seen it/what it might be. I treated for mites a few days ago with Varroxsan and I'm wondering if it's killing mites and the girls and dragging them out and leaving them there? First year beekeeper in Colorado submitted by /u/rapinoe_s [link] [comments]”

“I'm going to the city in a week to go pick up hives (not bees) for spring 2027. I have a beesuit already, besides a hive tool and a smoker do I need anything else? Should I get mite treatment right away? Or as I need it. Thanks for any advice or tips! (BC,Canada) submitted by /u/i__love__bathbombs [link] [comments]”

“South central Illinois 1st year newbie I'm going to treat hives with Apigaurd. Is it necessary to remove supers since they are dedicated to the bees this winter? submitted by /u/old_man_74 [link] [comments]”

“Good morning, A couple of weeks ago I posted a picture of our beehive. The bees were building their comb kinda weirdly. The general opinion was, that they are lacking wax, to smush down what they had built and add more wax to help them thrive. We did just that. They're thriving. I'm saying They're thriving but I'm actually not 100% sure about that. When is it enough? Can they overflow/outgrow their beehive and then leave? When we checked the beehive the other day it was FULL. Two”

“They are getting rid of the drones and one just landed next to the hive with varroa still attached, I did the wash last weekend and there was nothing. That family is always super clean. submitted by /u/zwierze1982 [link] [comments]”

“There have been some questionable things happening in my hive. There were some weird things happening with the queen cells but no swarm, also I cannot locate the queen. The bees have gone from beautifully curious and cute to stinging a lot. They’ve stung my husband a couple of times, and now stalk him through the entire acre we have to sting him, even when we haven’t been near the hive that day. They have stung me 3 times in 72 hours. Once on my nose through the mesh of the hat. It’s been a lot.”

“Had a very high mite count. Treated with Apiguard for 4 weeks. No I have VERY little brood and larva. New mite count was low. What should I do next? submitted by /u/BandicootPast [link] [comments]”

“Hey all, I wanted to post and get some input about my situation and what may have happened. I implemented the Apivar in my two hives earlier this week. Within 12 hours I had a pretty large die off and lots of disoriented bees unable to fly on the floor outside my hives. They were extremely active since 6 in the morning the next day after treatment and did not calm down until the evening. I know some die off is expected with the extra stress to the bees but this seemed excessive. It even caused o”

“That it is mid-August and swarm season is over. We generally run single deeps which is part of the problem. This is one of our 2026 grafts. This hive has 8 frames of brood / larvae and so we had to demarre it to hopefully keep her in place. This, plus 3 of the hives we requeened by combining boxes will all be wintered as doubles. submitted by /u/BaaadWolf [link] [comments]”

“In my 4th year beekeeping central tx and just dying to see how well stinging nettle helped my hives. This is far from conclusive as I didn’t test prior to adding it. I had it on 2 hives and one without. The hive without was at 8/300 but also had heavy beetle load and no traps.. The ones with nettle on top were at 4/300 and 1/300. It was over a 2 week period. I smoked the higher number hives with dried nettle and added swiffer sheets to the worst one. This was not a wide experiment and didn’t do”

“I had a colony that swarmed back in mid-June. I had a couple of inspections with no brood or eggs but then finally got a visual on the queen about four weeks later. Last week I had some eggs and capped brood so I assumed all was well. Yesterday I went to do a mite check and found my original queen on one frame, a new queen on the next frame, and a capped supercedure cell. What in the world are they doing in there? submitted by /u/Intelligent-Pepper31 [link] [comments]”

“Portsmouth New Hampshire here. I have three hives. All about 10 inches apart. One of the three hives is lagging behind this year. So, last week I tested for mites, twice. Both times with zero mites through alcohol wash. Can I assume since the other two hives are going gang busters, that because of proximity their mite number would be similar. Or should I test the other two just in case? submitted by /u/Tradesby [link] [comments]”

“Hello all. I live in central Pa. I just finished a varroxsan treatment on August 4th on three all-medium hives (Nucs bought in April). Alcohol wash suggests mites in check at 1-2 mite counts. Queen, eggs, larva and brood observed with calm bees all season. I’m looking at doing an August/September mite treatment. Last season I had used Apivar but did lose my bees in winter due to dysentery. What would be the best options? If I use Thymol I’d need to wait closer to late August due to temperature c”

“Northern California 1st year 5 hives. I read somewhere that stinging nettle leaves placed across the frames inside the hives is a good way to control mites. Anyone have any success with that? submitted by /u/Embarrassed_Ranger20 [link] [comments]”

“Grafted end of May Has moved from 3 frame mating Muc to 5 frame Nuc to full hive. Has produced a full super of honey as well. submitted by /u/BaaadWolf [link] [comments]”

“Unfortunately had a very high mite count of 20+ from 300 bees. Using apigaurd now. Anything else I can be doing? submitted by /u/BandicootPast [link] [comments]”

“Found second swarm in the last few weeks that really really small and has a young queen. Both of them were cut in my main apiary where I have about 20 hives. We are in Georgia US and it’s late for swarms, especially this size. First one I placed in maiting nuc and queen is laying really good. Just never had them before this size or maybe I just wasn’t around when it happened. submitted by /u/carsimex [link] [comments]”

“I have a hive that's doing very well. 2 brood boxes are filled out, a full honey super (which I am about to harvest), and food storage is really good. There is this frame in the top brood box that is 100% filled with honey, and it is very large. It is so large that the bees are unable to build comb out on the frames right beside it. Do you think I should harvest it? They have plenty of food storage elsewhere. Thanks! Located in Lancaster, PA. submitted by /u/Martylog78_ [link] &#”

“Denver, Colorado, 5b Hive is new to me, Sunday will have had it had it 3 weeks. Took a bit for the girls to calm down, wanted to get a proper mite count. The prior owner/keeper believed in treating no count, treatment method was apiguard mid may for less than 30 days. The hive was in an area that was super hot with full sun, now it is part shade and protected from heavy afternoon sun. Currently have a pollen patty feeding and tons of flowers in the yard. Should I add sugar water beyond fresh wat”

“Hey everyone. Im in zone 3B (usually the temps reflect it, but it has been so much warmer lately). Last year when I went to do an alcohol wash i didnt have more than 1 mite 300 and so i didnt treat. I tested in July/August and then never checked them again, but lost all (three) hives to mites. Should I have checked them throughtout the winter and treated? So my question is what should my treatment schedule look like and with what medicine? Right now I have honey supers on, but i think we might b”

“Recently treated this hive for mites (July 10 in middle Tennessee) using Varroxsan strips. Then had surgery and couldn’t check my hive for about 2 weeks. Today most of my frames look like this… I have larvae and some eggs but virtually no honey anywhere and it seems like far less bees. We’ve had tons of rain and my flowers are still blooming so my assumption was I didn’t have to feed them, but now I’m realizing I’ve probably starved my hive! I’m feeding now with 2:1 sugar syrup. Should I assume”

“This is a follow up from last week. I placed a Russian/Italian hybrid small queen from Lappes bee supply in a California mini cage in on Wednesday night. Went back this morning and the cage was empty the candy was gone. Would they release her if they weren’t going to accept her? First time requeening. I am feeding them, I’m in KY 6B. submitted by /u/Available-Nail-4308 [link] [comments]”

“South of France ! First year beekeeper here (2 hives). I'm realizing I have no real system for tracking things like when I last did a mite wash, what the count was, when I treated and with what, whether I actually rechecked after treatment to see if it worked. Right now it's just scattered notes on my phone and I feel like I'm going to lose track and miss something important. For those with a few seasons under your belt: do you use a notebook, a spreadsheet, an app, or just memory? A”

“Hey all, I'm a rookie second year beekeeper, Alberta Canada. My hive has exploded this year! But I am really struggling with the mites. After regular mite washes last year, I (probably mistakenly) did not treat last fall, though I didn't get above 1% This year end of May I had a count of 4mites/half cup of bees. I treated with formic pro (2 strips, 14 days). Due to exceptionally rainy weather I couldn't check again until end of June - to find I now had 12mites/half cup. I had more fo”

“I am at 8000 feet altitude in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. One of my hives looks like this today. What is happening? submitted by /u/PersonalityExternal1 [link] [comments]”