Frame Guide › Pests & poisoning
Varroa Mites & Deformed Wing Virus: what it looks like on the frame
August · your alcohol wash came back at 9 mites per 100 bees.
Reddish-brown mites the size of a pinhead riding on pupae, cappings opened by nurse bees over infested brood, and adults with shrivelled wings. Nine per hundred is triple the level where you're supposed to act — the mites have already been feeding on these bees for weeks.
Treat now with something that reaches mites under cappings
August brood becomes the winter bees that have to live six months — mites feeding on them now is exactly how a colony dies in February with honey still in the box. Most mites are sealed under cappings, so a product that penetrates them (or a treatment repeated across a brood cycle) is what actually works. Waiting until October means treating the corpses' parents.
Easy to mistake for
- ChalkbroodCool, wet spring. You spot chalky white bits on the landing board.
- Chilled BroodYou went through this hive on a windy 48°F day and took your time.
Could you spot this with the lid off?
Read the Frame deals you 8 random frames. Say what you see, say what you'd do, and find out why. It's free and runs on your phone.
Drill pests & poisoning → Mixed round (all 32 frames) →More pests & poisoning
- Wax Moth DamageThe outside frames of a colony that's been dwindling for a month.
- Small Hive Beetle Slime-OutHot, humid August. The box smells fermented, like rotting oranges.
- RobbingLate August dearth. Bees wrestling on the landing board.
- Bald BroodJune · a good colony, but these lines of open cells caught your eye.
- Pesticide PoisoningA field next door was sprayed in bloom yesterday. Piles of dead bees out front today.
- Healthy Colony, Low Mite CountLate June · an alcohol wash of 300 bees turned up 2 mites.
These frames are drawn to teach the pattern, and real frames vary. From The Alleman Apiary in Middletown, PA.