'One week Apistan treatment'

Surely queries on use of Apistan should really be answered by the manufacturers? However, my tuppence worth in the meantime...

Apistan seems very effective when applied to the phoretic mites in a colony without sealed brood - all mites seem to drop well within a week. The reason for leaving the strips in for 6 weeks is to catch the mites protected in brood cells when they emerge, and as some will dive back into another cell before receiving a lethal dose, the dose has to be still there to catch them second or third time around. The strips have ample 'active ingredient' - they become less effective in time because the bees slowly varnish then over (like every other surface in the hive), not because they become exhausted. 

I use the Dartington Long Deep hive which is designed to avoid swarming through separating the queen and swarm bees from the old brood nest (horizontal Demareeing) just by moving individual brood frames at the same level (so avoiding lifting heavy boxes) and putting in a vertical divider. The 'swarm' has no sealed brood so Apistan kills all mites at that end, usually within a few days - 3 weeks after division all the old brood has emerged in the 'parent' and the new queen is only just coming into lay, so the strips are moved to the rear compartment until dead mites stop dropping through the permanent mesh floor. 

So, one week exposure to Apitan in the fall will kill mites effectively if delayed until ALL sealed brood has emerged. However, the colony will quite likely die in the spring. Why? Because, as we know from Prof Mark Winston, it is not the mites that kill bees but the viruses that Varroa vector. October/November treatment will mean that the winter bees are full of virus and killing the mites then will not save the colony. My (neglected) colonies typically die in spring when stressed by the start of brood rearing. Varroa mites need to be controlled in mid-summer, before the colony starts to rear the winter bees in say August. Horizontal Demareeing creates the opportunity to hit phoretic mites with fumes, powders, oils as alternatives to fluvalinate. 

Varroa is now such a persistent problem that EVERY colony need to be in a hive with a permanent mesh floor for monitoring mite drop. Infestation levels vary widely and unpredictably due to robbing. 

Robin Dartington. 

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