Leave the apiguard in?

[josbees]

My Apiguard is due to come out this weekend, but we've suddenly hurtled into Fall, with temps below 50.  I'm concernced that if I go in now (waiting, of course for a somewhat decent day), I will break up the cluster to get to the Apiguard in the lower deep.  Do you think I can leave the strips in and just let the girls alone till Spring, or should I go for it and take them out?

Cheers!

[Scadsobees]

Do you mean APISTAN?

There are beeks that break the cluster this time of year to do an oxalic acid dribble.  It shouldn't be too big of a deal.  They will hate you for it and try to kill you, but you do need to get those out.  Wait for the nicest day possible, 50F won't kill them .

Rick

[josbees]

Sorry.  Yes, Apistan. Thanks -- I'll go for it.

[tandemrx]

I'm getting to be in the same boat as I put in my apistan late.  Bees have pretty heavy mite load - so want to give a full treatment, but I may only have one chance at +50s temps sometime next week (and if I don't have off from work on that day that it happens to warm up then I might be in trouble).

I am sure it is recommended to get the strips out so as not to breed resistance into the mites (although I wonder if in the cold temps of WI if the mites have much of an opportunity to breed a lot during the winter - especially with little to no brood and drone brood to work on).

Luckily, my bees have had minimal exposure to apistan thus far (nuc stock was treated with formic acid and I have rotated in apiguard last spring).

Still, I will do my best to get the strips out if I can . . . we go from a cold wet spring to a cold wet fall with very little warmth in between  :-\

[trapperbob]

 Some of the resistance problems we now have are because of leaving treatments in to long. When this is done the chemicals get weaker and the mites get sick but don't die then they get better and more resistant. Kind of like the flue shots we get that are weak strains or dead strains that we build a resistance to so we do not get sick. Don't ever do this it is just enviting futur catastrophies for every one. Your bees will take some cold for a very short period and not be harmed just don't keep them open any longr than necessary.

[tandemrx]

typical resistance mechanism is that the organism either dies or does not die.  those that do not die pass on their genes (or other traits) that helped them survive to future generations who then pass on successful genes (or other traits) that allow their future generations to survive in the face of the insult.  But it is rarely an antibody response to a chemical such as a pesticide, so its not really like a vaccine.

reproductive cycle of mite is short - something like 10 days, so even in a regular 4-6 week cycle of using apistan you could start to develop some resistance, but reproduction of the mite is required to "breed" resistance, and during cold winters you just can't have a fast or robust mite reproduction because not enough bee brood for them to use to do their normal reproductive mechanism.  Cold also will slow down the mite as it does the bee.

So, there has to be less resistance development during cold winters than during regular seasonal use of any pesticide.

Not saying it is a great thing to leave it around longer, but resistance would develop much slower in cold winters.  it is also not guaranteed that the mite will develop resistance, just like ther is no guarantee that a bee will develop resistance to mites just by not treating them and letting them be expose to mites.   especially for an external parasite . . . you can't develop antibodies to an external parasite . . . traits like grooming or possibly other mechanisms of "resistance' can develope, but extremely unlikely to develop antibodies to an external parasite.

It is possible that bees will eventually just become extinct - pesticides to treat mites or not.  No species is guaranteed continuing existence  :'(

But, much of this is semantics.   :)

[weBEE Jammin]

There is also the non chemical approach using essential oil methods. It can be put in their feed, coasters or grease patties. We use too many chemicals already.