Bees with deformed wings crawling in the grass in front of the hive in late September — too late to save them?
First year, two hives in central Minnesota. Yesterday I noticed maybe twenty or thirty bees crawling in the grass in front of my stronger hive, and when I looked closer a lot of them have shriveled, crumpled wings. Some are being dragged out by other bees. Inside, the brood looks mostly ok but I saw two or three newly emerged bees on the frames with the same stubby wings.
I did a sugar roll in early August and got 4 per 300, which my club said was borderline, and I'll be honest — I meant to treat and then work got crazy and I didn't. It's been 60-65°F days here, nights in the 40s.
How bad is this? Is it too late in the season to do anything, or is this colony already done? I feel awful.
It's not done, but you're in the last window, so treat this week, not next. Deformed wings mean DWV, and visible DWV means a high mite load — a sugar roll undercounts, so your 4 in August was likely 8-10 and it's doubled since. Alcohol wash for the number, but treat regardless. At 60-65°F days you're inside the Formic Pro range (50-85°F daytime highs); it reaches mites under the cappings, and the bees emerging over the next three weeks are your winter bees. Read the label, supers off, two strips, 14 days. The crawlers on the grass are lost — the job is the bees still in cells.
QuebecBees · Sep 21, 2026
Quebec, similar temperatures to you. Agree with GeorgiaWes: formic now while you still can, then plan an oxalic dribble or vapour in November once they're broodless to mop up what's left. Don't judge the colony by the crawlers on the grass — check in three weeks whether the newly emerging bees have good wings. If the colony is down to a few frames by then, combine it onto your other hive rather than nursing it. And wash the other hive today, they share drift.
MieleMarco · Sep 21, 2026
One more thing nobody says loudly enough: don't beat yourself up, but do write down the date. Fourteen years in and my calendar has one line in July that says TREAT, in capitals, because the year I skipped it looked exactly like your post. The colony that survives this will teach you more than the ten that never had a problem.
mn_newbee · Sep 22, 2026
Thank you all. Did the alcohol wash tonight: 27 per 300 on the bad hive, 9 on the other. Both over threshold. Formic Pro ordered for Wednesday delivery, forecast is 58-68 for the next two weeks so I should be inside the range. Calendar alert set for July 15 next year, in capitals as MieleMarco suggested.