The Mighty Mite- Stratiolaelaps Scimitus Wormersley

We would like to report our recent experience with an experimental mite treatment.
This summer was good, and our mite counts remained at 1-3 per day on August 1st.
We were out of town on September 1st.

On October 3rd, we had a mite count in our six hives as follows:
1.	58.5 per day
2.	82.5 per day This hive had the largest population at the time.
3.	14.5 per day
4.	22.5 per day
5.	89 per day
6.	45.5 per day

Small piles of dead bees were found in front of most hives.
Hive 3 was gone, with all larvae chewed out, by 10/10/14.
 We prayed, as we always do, and ordered something rather revolutionary.
We ordered Stratiolaelaps Scimitus Womersley (SSW). The old name for these tiny mites is Hypoapsis Miles. 

This tiny predator mite is proportionate in size to a Varroa mite as the Varroa mite is to a bee. They are available because they are used in organic greenhouses to kill certain insect pests. They are also used in some pet shops.

One liter amply treated the five remaining hives, though Hive 5 was nearly gone. It was gone by 10/25/14.
The difficult thing about these tiny mites is that you can’t really see them with the unaided eye. They come in one liter bottles packed in mulch, and they must be shipped overnight mail and applied immediately. They are temperature sensitive, too, and should be kept at 60-70 degrees until they are applied.

10/14/2014 SSW Mites were applied along the tops of the frames on the top box of each hive. The bees were smoked first, and afterwards fed heavy syrup with HBH.  Dry boards were put underneath the hives.
10/17/2014 The dry boards appeared to show only plenty of the mulchy packing.

10/18-21/2014 Oiled IPM boards were placed under the hives. The mite numbers could not be read due to the amount of mulch still falling. The hives ranged from 3-19 dead bees on the boards. A few bees hovered over the boards, which is not characteristic. Hives 2 and 4 had teams evicting bees. The bees were fed again. 

10/21-26/2014 This was a beautiful week of Indian summer. The bees showed a surprising amount of industry, pulling in many loads of pollen and nectar. We continued to feed, as we did about twice per week until December. 

10/25/2014 We went to a teaching tour by Billy Davis of sustainablebees.com. Steve came home and made wire entrance guards. We also began to feed dry Megabee in milk bottle caps inside the outer cover, in the space above the inner cover made by Steve’s ventilator shims, an idea gained from Mr. Davis last year. We also use the space for feeders.

10/26/2014 The oil boards were set. The bees were even more industrious.

10/29/2014 The IPM boards were read. The small amount of remaining mulch was not a problem. 
Hive 1- 10.7 mites per day
Hive 2- 0 mites
Hive 4- 1/3 mite per day
Hive 6- 0 mites
(Hives 3 and 5 had failed before the SSW were available and effective.)

Questions: Was this just the little mites? Perhaps the earlier fall of fine debris also encouraged the bees to “groom” one another, which often knocks the mites loose.

11/4/2014 Hive 4, which had looked very strong and was pulling in pollen rapidly, seemed to suffer from robbing or disease. A large pile of bees was found in front of the hive and in the entrance. A smaller pile was found in front of Hive 2, next door.

11/11/2014 On Veteran’s Day, all hives were active, though Hive 2 was a bit slower. All bees have been using Tupperware feeders with safety screens in their ventilator shims. They seem to be using the Megabee, as well. All hives were left at four medium eight boxes plus the ventilator shim. IPM boards were placed. 

11/14/2014 Temperatures have plunged into the 30’s. The bees were wrapped with silver pipe insulation. The outer covers were already insulated. Crystallized syrup in the feeders was covered with bees. Hive 4 had a few more dead bees at the entrance and eight on the IPM board. Hives 2 and 6 had one dead bee each; Hive 1 had nine. Hives 1 and 6 had small debris patterns in the NW corner of their hives. Hives 2 and 4 had larger, more centralized debris patterns, implying brood. There were NO MITES.

1/19/2015 Two months later, all four hives are still alive! Both the mites and diseases have been survived! We consider this a successful experiment with the SSW mites, and plan to use them next year. We may eventually find a closer source than California. Of course, the bees still need to survive the winter, but that is not directly related to the mites. 

Of the six hives, the two we lost before the mites were established were club Italian package hives. Hive 4 is the remaining Italian package hive. Hives 2 and 6 were headed by daughters of Hive 1’s Yellowtail, the only survivor of last year’s mite plague and hard winter. She is the daughter of a VSH/Carniolan open mated queen from VP Queens that swarmed last year. Yellowtail and her daughters did not get rid of the mites, as we had hoped, but they may be more disease-resistant, as they seemed not to sicken after being freed from the mites.

We have read all we could find about the use of the SSW in fighting the Varroa mites. They are being used at Buckfast Abbey. The mites seem to be more easily available there; they are used to fight an insect that plagues chickens. Buckfast’s teachers train beekeepers in the use of the SSW, along with general beekeeping. The best explanation of the Mighty Mite is from a 2013 Canadian study, as recorded in this video. http://www.niagarabeeway.com/bio-control-for-varroa-mite.html 

We have read some unofficial negative comments on the use of SSW for bees. Most of this is from people who say they think it to be impossible that a soil-dwelling insect could help in a beehive. Others fear that the tiny mites will turn on the bees or larvae. No one who has experience with the SSW has any of these concerns.

A few Americans have tried this with varied results. It is very possible that the varied results depend on how well the guidelines are followed. The SSW must be alive at the start, shipped by overnight delivery, and applied on the day of receipt. They need very moderate temperatures in transit. You can’t tell just by a glance whether they are alive, because they are tiny.

The Buckfast Abbey team recommends applications four times per year; this is not practical for us. The Canadian study is experimenting with spring only vs. spring and September applications. We will continue to monitor our bees, and plan to apply the SSW when the temperatures begin to be regularly in the 90’s. If that is earlier in the summer, we may need to apply them again later, as shown in the 2014 report of the Canadian study. http://www.niagarabeeway.com/varroa-mite-2014-report.html 

Apparently there has been significant trouble with Canadian and provincial authorities, so the initial experiments were carried on secretly. That may also be why the few sources I read from Buckfast in Devonshire, England are no longer available. Nevertheless, here is a note from someone who has taken one of the classes sponsored by Buckfast.
https://chrissladesbeeblog.wordpress.com/2013/02/17/how-are-the-mitey-fallen/

Steve and Kathleen Heise

We ordered the little mites from the following company:
http://www.evergreengrowers.com/stratiolaelaps-scimitus-womersley-hypoaspis.html
https://evergreengrowerssupply.wordpress.com/2013/12/10/biocontrol-for-the-varroa-mite/

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