Anne Sayers wrote:

> I am using FGMO as a control for mites in my hives...
> Our question is " should we suspend
> the fogger treatment of FGMO after the first frost and not resume
> treatment until we begin the spring population build up for the honey
> flow?'

Sorry.  We got off on discussing everything except the question asked.  I'll
try to address it.

The answer is that you can fog at any time the bees are not clustered, and I
gather many practice fogging weekly whenever the bees are active, regardless
of season.  Repeated fogging apparently does not harm the bees in any
noticeable way.  (Clustering is generally considered to take begin when the
bees are in an ambient temperature of 55 degrees F or lower, but an good
indicator of activity is seeing bees coming and going at the entrance).

Since, as we have so strongly pointed out again recently, fogging is not an
entirely reliable method of control.  Regular and careful monitoring of mite
loads, and correct interpretion of results is absolutely essential to
prevent loss.

Whether sugar shake, ether roll, natural mite drop, alcohol wash, or a 24
hour Apistan or coumaphos drop is used for this purpose, interpretation of
the results of the test is a bit of an art.  Moreover, how many mites your
hive can tolerate is dependant on many factors, including weather, climate,
location, breed of bees, nutrition, time of year, etc. etc.  Most of us tend
to try to err on the side of safety, and although the forum discussed
previously mentions 20-40 mites a day in natural drops, most of us would
decide to use a more powerful, emergency method to knock the mites back
before we got nearly that high.  My 'get serious' threshold is more like 3
mites a day in summer and fall (natural drop test), or anything more than an
occasional mite in the spring.

The Central Science laboratory --
http://www.csl.gov.uk/science/organ/environ/bee/varroamodel/ -- offers an
analyzer at
http://www.csl.gov.uk/science/organ/environ/bee/varroamodel/app.cfm that can
be instructive, but assumes some drone brood at all times, which is not what
we observe here.  I discuss my own experience at
http://www.honeybeeworld.com/diary/articles/drops.htm

The main thing is monitor and give yourself -- and your bees -- a wide
margin of safety if you see the varroa levels climbing, not falling.

allen
http://www.honeybeeworld.com/diary/

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