>are your bees resistant or do you treat?  If you treat, how do you treat?

Here in Finland  we detected first tracheal mites quite recently - only 
about  18 years ago. At that time we could see several beekeepers loosing 
50 - 80 % of hives during winter for tracheal mites.

About 10 years ago varroa become resistant to fluvalinates,and beekepers 
changed to use more formic acid in varroa treatments. Tracheal mites almost 
disappeared for several yeras. Now the trend in varroa treatments is more 
for thymol + oxalic. And the tracheal has started to show itself again.

Biggest problems with italian beees, maybe the others have resistance, but 
there is no proof by study.

Recommended treatment is formic acid in the spring. 25 ml of 65 % acid in a 
kitchen towel on top of the frames for a hive with one langstroth box. 3 - 4 
treatments, with 4 days between treatments. It's the same what we recommend 
for varroa in the spring if tretament is needed.

Ari Seppälä
Finland

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