AlpineCarnica · Tyrol, AT · Pests & Disease · Oct 30, 2026

Last mite counts of the season across 24 colonies — the numbers, and the three things I'm changing next year

Tyrol, eighteen years. Since I asked people for their action thresholds earlier this month, it's only fair to publish my own numbers now that the seven-day counts are finished across all 24 colonies at both sites. The results. Nineteen colonies at under one mite per day, which is where I want to be going into winter. Three between two and four a day, all three in the lower apiary, all three next to each other on the same stand. Two above ten a day, and here's the interesting part: both were the colonies I treated last, because I was waiting for their supers to come off. The three things I'm changing. One: last supers come off a fortnight earlier, even at the cost of a little honey. Two: whole yards get treated within the same few days rather than hive by hive as I get to them. Three: I count before AND after on every colony, not just the ones I'm worried about. Happy to be told what else the numbers show that I've missed.

#varroa#mite-counts#reinvasion#season-review

▲ 6 votes 💬 4 replies

4 replies

MayaBees · Oct 30, 2026

Oregon. Three adjacent colonies on one stand with elevated counts is a textbook reinvasion picture rather than three independent failures. Is there an unmanaged apiary or a feral colony within flight range of that yard? If so those three will do it again next year whatever you do inside your own boxes, and it's worth an awkward conversation.

ImkerinLena · Oct 30, 2026

Bavaria. The conclusion most beekeepers resist is the one your two late-treated colonies point at: the calendar matters more than the product. Treat while the winter bees are still being reared and you've protected the wrong generation. AlpineCarnica, did the two late colonies also carry your biggest crop? Because that's the trade people quietly make every year.

AlpineCarnica · Oct 30, 2026

ImkerinLena — yes. The two worst were my two best producers, which is exactly the trap. That's precisely why I'm writing the fortnight-earlier rule down now, in October, rather than deciding again in August with full supers in front of me.

SkaneBees · Oct 31, 2026

Skåne. Thank you for posting actual numbers, they're rarer on forums than opinions. The count-before-and-after point is the cheapest of your three changes and probably the most valuable — it's the only way to know whether a treatment did anything.

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