On varroa screens –  our design for the varroa screen and I expect
Dadant’s and Brushy Mountains also can be used either on a bottom board
or by itself. Certainly, if it is used on a bottom board, the  board
would have to be periodically cleaned.  Our solution to this is to use a
plastic tray or some  heavy paper that can be pulled out from the back
of the hive periodically and dumped into a pail for wax processing.  The
advantage of having  the screen on the bottom board is that it allows
you to monitor mite falls. If wax and mite debris are falling through
the screen directly on to  the ground, you have no way of checking the
effectiveness of your treatment. The other problem that could develop
from debris falling directly through the screen on to the ground is that
you might not see chaulkbrood mummies.  When we see them in front of the
hive we usually move the hive stand to prevent futher contamination.On
the other hand, if the screen is used without a bottom board, there is
definitely less labor involved and probably some ventilation advantage.
I am all for lots of ventilation as long as there is no direct draft on
the bottom of the frames that limits egg laying in along the bottom bar.
I am one of those Northern nuts that believes in the efficacy of a
slatted rack, so on the advice of  another Northern nut from the North
of Engand that we met at Apimondia, we have changed the direction of the
slats on our slatted racks so  that they  run parallel with the frames
and won’t impede mitefall through a varroa screen.

On Medhat’s concern about Apicure affecting brood during Spring
treatment -The gel pack can sit directly on the top bars without any
spacers or extraneous rings such as those needed by the Canadian mite
boards because there are three layers of plastic between it and the
frames.  The Apicure pouch is opened only on the top. The research on
brood reduction was done by Drs. Pettis and Shiminuki.  They measured
brood in treated and untreated hives before and after treatment.  They
did find that the treated hives did have a little less brood  after the
treatment.  Thirty days later, they measured the brood again and found
no difference, and it the end of the season they found no difference in
honey production. They deem that Apicure’s effect on brood rearing in
the Spring is insignificant.   I suspect that most of us could shake a
package of bees out of our Spring hives or make a split  and not affect
honey production at all – in fact we might even call it swarm control.

On the Floridian who was told by his bee inspectors that the climate is
too warm and brood rearing too continuous for Apicure to be effective –
Last winter we took 500 hives to Florida on December 11 and treated them
with the leftover Apicure packets from the Beltsville bee laboratory.
The Florida bee inspectors inspected our hives on Febuary 1 and found
only one mite.  The next week we received calls from the other
beekeepers in our orange grove who had treated with tactic and
experienced first hand its cross resistance with apistan, requesting us
to send some of that stuff down immediately.   Lawrence Cutts maintains
that it worked because our hives were broodless when they came down from
the North. Maybe, but it did seem to hold off reinfestation from our
neighbors for at least a month.  Apicure was tested in the summer in
Mexico in weather that I would expect would be at least equivalent to
Florida and the results, which will be published this summer, were
encouraging.  Does Apicure kill mites in brood; that is the 64 dollar
questions.  The Argentinians  have a beautiful full color brochure
showing how their gel penetrates the cappings and kills the mite without
affecting the larvae. The only explanation I have been given of how
formic vapors kill mite and not bees is that it penetrates the thinner
exoskeleton of the mite and can’t penetrate that of the bees. If that
was true, wouldn’t it penetrate the undeveloped exoskeleton of the bee?
There is no doubt that more research will have to be done to determine
the most effective dosage for warmer climates and Jeff Pettis of
Beltsville and Nick Calderone of Cornell have promised to work on this.
They are also working on it in Italy which has a semi-tropical climate.
The foremost Varroa researcher in Southern Europe, Dr. Norberto Milani
seems to feel very differently about its potential than Mr. Cutts.  He
writes:
“Dear Mr. Stevens
    Our Department has been carrying out research on the varroa mite
control for several years. I was addressed to you by Dr. Pettis.
      We have carried out some field trials with the varroacide
formulation developed by Dr. Pettis.  We have found that this product is
tolerated by the honey bee and effective against the varoa mite, but the
dose should be increased up to 350-450 grams per colony to obtain
maximum results under our conditions in Dadant-Blatt hives (Aren’t they
larger than our Langstroths?). More test will be carried out during next
year.
      I would like to know if you have developed a suitable packaging
and if you plan to market this product in Europe. New varroacide
products are needed since the varroa mite has developed resitance to
coumaphos in Italy. It is increasingly difficult to control the mite in
areas where brood is present all the year around.”
        Best Regards,   Norberto Milani”
If any other researchers would like to work on  adapting the dosage of
Apicure for particular climates, please contact me for free samples.
Apicure is now registered in all states except California and Florida.
We are still working on the California registration, but with the state
bee inspectors working against us in Florida, we may withdraw the
Florida application. Strange how the Florida officials were able to
shepherd a registration through in record time for an organo-phosphate
that is so dangerous you are not allowed to raise comb honey on a hive
on which it has been used, but a registration for a miticide made
entirely of food-approved ingredients sits unapproved for 5 months.
       The final bit of information on Apicure that I would like to
impart is that we are applying to O.M.R.I. for certification as an
organic pesticide.  If we get the certification and it is by no means
certain, it should allow those of us who use it exclusively to market
organic honey which should give us a badly needed price advantage over
imported honey
Bob Stevens  Apicure Inc., 518-692-9802