- So now we're gonna talk about another method of monitoring for mites.
And I've got an expert with me here to help me with this.
This is Melanie Kempers.
She works with the Ontario Beekeepers Association Tech-Transfer program.
So she does a lot of this kind of thing, and teaches about these methods quite a bit, too.
The alcohol wash method is what she is going to demonstrate.
I don't do a lot of that with our work.
We've already seen our sticky paper method that we use mostly.
So Mel's gonna take over here.
And, Mel, what do you do, and when do you do it, and how do you do it?
- Well, the alcohol wash is a great monitoring method.
It works very, very well and, unfortunately, that's because it kills both the bees and
the varroa mites.
So the varroa mites are holding onto the adult bees with their little feet.
They can hold on quite tight, and so when you want to look for levels of infestation
and you're taking a sample of bees to do that, the mites will stay holding on unless you
can kill them and, unfortunately, to kill a varroa mite you're probably also gonna kill
the bees, which is unfortunate.
But we like to assimilate this as to taking a biopsy or a sample of your blood to see
if there are some aspects of problems in that.
And so we're just taking a very small sample of bees.
It's a very small number in terms of population size, but we're getting to see what their
infestation level is because of that small sample we're taking.
We like to do this first thing in the spring once they start really boosting up in their
population.
When the bees population starts to increase, the varroa mites will also start to increase,
so that is a great time to check your levels.
You want to start the bees off in the spring with a low infestation level of varroa mites,
as low as you can get them.
And so to start the season off really clean and strong, you want to make sure you check
your levels.
And from there, if you can and if you are willing, we suggest you do this on a monthly
basis.
So every month from, say, June onwards or May onwards, you're gonna be checking your
levels for varroa mites, and you'll see that increase happening.
That infestation percentage will increase, as the population of that hive increases.
Another really important time to check your mite levels, is in the late summer, early
fall, because the bees are then going to be producing their winter bees.
Winter bees have to be very healthy to make it through several months of being in the
cold temperatures.
They need to survive that entire time, so they need to be born very healthy, so that
means your low levels of infestation will allow those bees to be healthy and strong
for the winter.
So checking your levels, say, in August, is very ideal.
We want to make sure our levels are low at that time.
We want to step in and do something if our levels are high, and we want to make sure
those winter bees are very healthy for the winter time.
- So, we're set to go then, right?
Thanks a lot for that explanation.
That really helps to know about the timing.
So to take this sample then, what kind of bees are you looking for?
- We're looking for bees from the brood chamber.
The varroa mites live within the brood, so that's where they will stay.
They typically hang out on nurse bees and house bees, so we want to make sure we're
down in the brood chamber.
Right now we don't have honey supers on so we can go right in and find the brood frames,
frames with brood on them.
A variety of brood is good.
You want some open larvae and some capped brood, because the mites are attracted to
that open area, but the house bees are looking after capped brood, as well.
So the brood frames are what you want to look for when you're getting a sample of bees.
We also say you shake a variety of frames into a tub so you're not just relying on one
frame for that sample.
- And what do you do about the queen, Mel, so you don't get the queen in your alcohol
wash?
- Right, good point.
So I did mention that this, unfortunately, does kill some bees.
We don't want to kill the queen, she's very, very important for the success of the hive.
We want to make sure she's safe.
So it is recommended you go in ahead of time, find your queen and cage her, or put her on
a frame and take her into another box, potentially temporarily, so that you're not shaking her
into the tub.
We have found our queen today, she's caged in a roller cage, and we want to make sure
she's safe for this process, so she's gonna stay in that cage until we're done.
- Okay, well, let's get some bees and our samples then.
- [Melanie] So the brood is typically towards the center, so you want to make sure you've
got some space, take your frames out, give yourself a little bit of room.
- So we just got a honey frame there, and we'll work over to the middle where the brood
will be.
We're in the fall of the year, the queens have stopped laying, there's not a lot of
brood at this point.
So we'll get those middle frames out.
We've already looked, there's some open brood on this frame.
Nice shake, Mel, they all went in.
How about that.
I think you've done this before.
- [Melanie] I have.
All right, we're gonna probably do just a few frames.
Make sure we get a variety of bees in this sample.
- [Paul] So not all those bees are going in the sample?
- [Melanie] No, we're gonna take a part of that into our container to see what our levels
are like.
- [Paul] Okay, I can put those frames back in if you want to carry on.
- [Melanie] Perfect.
So I have here a 1/2 cup.
A 1/2-cup of bees is approximately 300 bees, and so that gives you a good estimate of what's
happening inside the hive.
Right now there's probably 30, 40 thousand bees in the hive, so 300 is a very small amount.
You want a level scoop.
Make sure you don't have a heaping or too low.
You have your alcohol ready.
So we want 70% alcohol, and the bees will go inside.
The rest of the bees can go back into the colony.
So Paul's gonna dump them back in.
And for now we're gonna use this handy-dandy device called the mite shaker or the bee shaker,
and that gives us an idea of how many mites are living within the bees inside this colony.
You want to shake it for about a minute or two, and that'll give it time to kill the
mites, as well as the bees, and that will separate them.
The mites will no longer hold on with their little feet, they won't have the ability to
do so.
And inside these jars is a screen and that screen is a number eight mesh, or a hardware
cloth with eight squares per inch.
And that'll allow mites to go through and not the bees.
- So, it's welded together there with two lids with the screen in between the two, right?
- Correct, yes.
It's a plastic weld.
It's kind of like two peanut butter jars.
You can attempt to make your own if you'd like, but make sure that your weld is going
to be alcohol proof.
When you use glue, it falls apart.
So we've given this some time.
When you flip it over, it's best not to just jam the bees down onto the screen.
You want to make sure the mites can pass through.
So we like to use the tornado movement.
And make sure that everything passes through.
You even want to give it a bit of a shake, and make sure the mites are coming through.
- You're getting as many as possible off the bees then?
- Correct.
- You see any there?
- Yeah, so sometimes they float, you gotta give 'em a chance to come down.
- Oh, yeah, there's some on the surface there, too.
- Yeah, so I see one, two, three, four, five, six.
So we have six mites and approximately about 300 bees.
That is about a 2% infestation level.
- Mel, how would that compare, we should talk about thresholds a little bit.
So we need to compare the sticky paper results with the alcohol wash method and talk a bit
about what our threshold is here in Ontario.
- Correct, so our thresholds have been kind of brought forth by a collection of researchers
and extension workers, and people who are working in the industry.
We talk about what we see, what levels are damaging, and what our research has shown.
So in the spring we like to go a little bit on the lesser side.
Want to make sure our infestation levels are low to begin the season.
So for alcohol wash, you want a 1% to 2% infestation at the most, and the fall it's about a 2%
to 3% infestation.
For the sticky paper, we do it more of a 24-hour count.
Now you should leave it in for, say, three days, so that you get an average count per
day, and you want no more than nine per day in the spring, and 12 in the fall.
- So if those thresholds are exceeded, that prompts the use of a miticide of some sort?
- Yeah, so stepping in and doing something about those levels is important to keeping
that infestation level low so you can use something like a treatment.
You can also use management techniques like drone brood removal, or brood breaking, things
that can help diminish and keep that level steady.
You may not lower the level with management techniques, but you will maintain that they
don't increase as fast.
- Great, so for breaking the brood cycle, things like introducing a queen cell versus
a mated queen would do that.
- [Melanie] Or making a split.
- Or making up a split.
So there are a number of culture controls like that.
That's great.
That's a simple method.
There are many other methods, but were trying to keep this as straightforward as possible.
You've done a really great job there.
I particularly like that tornado technique.
We're gonna have to practice on that.
Thanks very much, Mel.
Appreciate your help.