Cara Hagar

Great thoughtful replies - thanks! The idea to grow herbs near the hives is a new one - especially thyme from which thymol (mite treatment) is derived! We did learn about drenching the bees with powdered sugar. In our class this treatment was presented as a "will likely help some", but not a definitive treatment for troublesome levels. I sent a sample of bees to our local university for testing last fall and had zero mites, which is partly why I'm hesitating to treat now.

Think I'd best put some 1" graph paper on my bottom board for a week to see if there are any mites and then decide. I'm also interested in working with a frame of drone comb in each hive - drone cells are larger and so the mites prefer those as they can lay more eggs in them. When the cells are capped you remove the drone comb and put in freezer, killing the mites. Have to be vigilant about timing though - if you let those cells hatch you REALLY have a mess!

And while I agree that no treatment may lead to mite resistant bees, in our area mite infested hives get so weakened that they almost always die out over winter.

Am still hoping someone with experience with essential oils can tell us about that too...

I'm a 2nd year beekeeper with two hives and I have been told that I need to use Apivar or some other chemical in my hives to treat mites right away - even though I've not yet confirmed that I even have a mite problem. Many beekeepers in my area are finding heavy mite infestations this spring, so the advice is to treat prophylactically with a chemical treatment - which I really don't want to use! I've heard about using essential oils (thyme, peppermint, lemongrass, etc) to keep a hive healthy, but I don't know specifically how to treat a hive with mites with oils. Anybody know?