For the full article with pictures and supporting graphs, visit www.BeeResQ.com (removed for blog post)
www.BeeResQ.com Presents:
Thermal Treatment Review
Mites, Small Hive Beetles, and MORE??? :-)
Beekeeping Stories: An adventure in Integrated Pest Management
An article and review by Mike Immer for www.BeeResQ.com
Please be sure to get permission from and credit the author and source when
sharing/distributing.
Special thanks to Sophia A. Immer for some assistance making graphical sense out of
my junky spreadsheets! (removed for blog post)
Article Summary/Overview:
Thermal treatment equipment and methods vary. The thermal boards from
www.beehivethermalindustries.com are simple and require little to no custom or
non-standard equipment.
Thermal treatment on 30 test colonies showed the greatest effectiveness on both
varroa mites and small hive beetles (SHB) on single brood box configurations.
Thermal treatment was still effective for varroa mites on double deep brood boxes
configurations but was less effective for small hive beetles (SHB).
Thermal treatment was more difficult and less effective for varroa mites and made
almost no difference for small hive beetles (SHB) in triple deep configurations.
Additional, more anecdotal information offered: general health and hardiness of
bees observed to be better and support the proposed additional benefits of reducing
the viral and bacterial load bees may be experiencing with mites being the primary
vector for the additional diseases. Testing to continue on this topic.
Pros: Kills mites on the bees, in the hive, even under capped brood
Kills or forces out small hive beetles (SHB)
Less safety equipment is required/more comfortable
Safer than oxalic acid sublimation/dribble
More studied and proven than essential oils and powdered sugar methods
Less temperature dependent than some treatment methods
Can be used with supers
Durable and reusable
Can be integrated with other pest management methods if needed
Length of treatment ensures impact on mites as foragers come and go*
Affects mites on bearded bees with temperatures that kill or sterilize mites
Recent studies indicate that heat can also reduce viral and/or bacterial loads
No need to buy and store harsh chemicals or worry about expiring products
~$350 US per unit
Cons: Length of treatment (roughly 2.5-3 hours) and yes, listed as both pro and con
Requires monitoring for 15-30 minutes until treatment temp is reached
Requires power (nearby outlet or generator)
Only available for Langstroth style 8 Frame, 10 Frame and Nucs
Custom bottom board required to treat plastic/foam insulated hives
Recommended operating temperature minimum 70 degrees Fahrenheit
(Meaning most treatments done in daytime when foragers are out)*
Effectiveness varies based on configuration of hives l
(Meaning most effective on singles, least effective on triples)
Doubles and triples often require tape over any gaps between boxes
~$350 US per unit - and yes, this is listed as both pro and con
*Note: Reiterating the biggest complaint about the process and product, the
treatment time. This may actually be a positive in regards to overall effectiveness.
Most foragers will be making trips back into the hive to deposit any gathered
resources over this period of time and will be exposed to the raised hive
temperature. The temperature to sterilize mites is actually lower than the full
treatment temperature, and less exposure time can still effectively reduce or
eliminate mites in a given hive/colony.
Returning foragers may also beard up with the other bees trying to regulate the hive
temperature, and thus be exposed to temperatures that can kill or sterilize mites
they already had, or those they may have picked up while robbing out a collapsed
hive, open feeding, or just being out foraging in the trees, flowers, etc.
Records/Data: See my somewhat rudimentary spreadsheet data and cost
comparison at the end. One or two hives being tested wouldn’t be a large enough
sample, so I used 30, in the same yard. Further, more scientific studies could
eliminate more variables by standardizing further and providing a control. (removed for blog post)
Disclaimer: I am not a scientist or a professional researcher, data analyst, or even a
spreadsheet guru. I’m an “ok” writer I suppose, but I know there are errors here and
there in this article correcting would have put publication of this information off
EVEN LONGER. The curse of a perfectionist with very little time I guess!
That said, I know there are unaccounted for variables, and likely anomalous data
due to my own terrible handwriting, the weather, etc. J But certain trends and
generalities can be gained from the data I’m offering as it relates to the small scale
testing that I did on thirty of my own colonies in the summer and fall of 2018.
Thumbnails (below) are of the larger graphs at the end of the document: (removed for blog post)
The Rest of the Story - for those that like to read
First of all, I am not what you would call a strictly, treatment free beekeeper.
By strictest definition, treatment free beekeeping advocates discourage ANY type of
activity that intervenes in the process of bees developing their own survival traits
against pests like varroa and small hive beetles. Some would argue that anything
beyond observing them in the wild could be considered intervention. So I won’t get
into that.
Although I applaud treatment free or chemical free beekeeper’s determination and
intent in some ways, and I LOVE the idea of treatment free beekeeping…I like the
idea of keeping bees alive even better!
Even so, I try to keep a “no judgment” attitude in my little bee company as I try to
help whoever I can, without condemning “mite bombs” and the increased potential
for small hive beetle proliferation, and spreading of other diseases etc.
I just try to be as responsible a beekeeper as I can be, and take care of my bees, and
my customer’s bees, as well as I can.
That said, and even though I use things like Apivar, oxalic acid sublimation/dribble,
patties, test other methods etc., I DO like to limit the use of harsh chemicals when I
can.
In fact, I tend to favor more natural and organic treatments whenever I can… IF they
are effective.
So, in thinking about this mysterious new thing called “thermal treatment” what
could be more natural and chemical free than strait up heat? Right?
I’ll go ahead and risk sounding (unintentionally) like a review of the specific type of
thermal treatment equipment I tested, but this article is more than that.
Hopefully I will be able to relieve some of the immediate concerns beekeepers seem to have beyond the general “newfangled-ness” (if that’s a word) of these computer
controlled devices.
A lot of beekeepers have never heard of thermal treatment.
In fact, I’ve received lots of private messages about this topic, so thought I’d go
ahead and write up my experience and elaborate a bit for whoever is interested.
When I first came across thermal treatment, I had NO IDEA what it was, how it
worked, it’s intended use etc. other than it was a relatively new and chemical free
alternative treatment for honeybees to rid them of the nasty little varroa mites that
have been causing such difficulty and disease.
It turns out that the bees themselves do a version of “thermal treatment” when they
swarm, raising the hive and their own body temperatures before they go, etc.
Fascinating, right? Did you know that? I didn’t until I started my research!
I did a ton of reading, and it turns out that the concept isn’t necessarily new, but
overcoming some of the challenges during the studies and finding a way of
simplifying the process IS new.
To boil down a LOT of research, some of which was conducted in other countries,
thermal treatment simply involved heating bees up to determine at which
temperatures mites were affected, and at what temperatures would the bees, brood,
wax, queen, etc. be able tolerate?
You can imagine how many bees “gave their lives” in this type of research. It’s kind
of sad to think about.
You can imagine, there were significant difficulties encountered in rounding up
bees, moving them, containing them for treatment, building cabinets for treatment
and monitoring, and then putting survivors back, and determining queen viability,
managing variables, laboratory versus field studies, etc.
Moreover, there was lot of measuring and recording of data to determine what
temperatures and timeframes were required to kill mites in various states and
various places within the hive. For instance, finding ways of killing mites under the
capped brood, where they are protected from many other treatments!
By the way, this is the real breeding ground for varroa mites, that many other
treatment methods don’t reach. This one very good reason that oxalic acid (OA)
vaporization (more accurately called sublimation) and fogging aren’t very effective,
at least when brood is present! That is also why several treatments are necessary.
The every four days, or every seven days, for three or four treatments with OA? That
is intended to get into the cells that were capped, and hatched, etc. over the
treatment period! That may be something else you didn’t know too!
So, before we get into too much detail, I think the simple goal of all of this, beyond
healthier bees, should be stated:
Use heat to destroy/control mites, and have healthy and productive bees.
Without going into the “law of unintended consequences” and a bunch of other stuff,
let me outline some of the reasons I landed on one particular product to test with.
1. I didn’t want to utilize ANY non-standard beekeeping hive equipment. If it
required custom frames or foundations, I had no interest in trying it.
2. I wanted use ONLY standard Langstroth deeps, mediums and even a few
shallows, in ten and eight frame configurations as these are the most
common, and would provide the best test for my own purposes based on
what equipment and bees I had available.
3. Portability is important as I also didn’t want to have some kind of bulky
enclosure or cabinet to move around, or a process that could only be used at
night, or anything like that.
Why? Like most beekeepers, budget always plays a role. All of my equipment at the
time consisted of standard, Langstroth deeps, mediums, and shallows, with a mix of
plastic frames, plastic foundations, wooden frames, and even some foundationless
frames. And I also had very few telescoping lids by this time, as I had switched to
migratory lids.
After doing some looking, I chose the www.beehivethermalindustries.com “Mighty
Mite” thermal treatment boards.
I spent a lot of time at their website reading through their documentation before
deciding to go this direction. The information they shared matched up pretty nicely
to other studies I’d read, and even used some of those studies as sources.
Since I had both eight and ten frame equipment, I went ahead and ordered one of
each. This would allow me to treat two hives at a time, which it turns out was hugely
beneficial to me as I had already determined I wanted to test thirty hives.
This particular piece of equipment met my needs for simplicity, no custom
beekeeping woodenware, etc. and it was simple to install.
But there were (and are) some requirements to consider.
1. You need a power source, either a standard outlet nearby, long enough to run
extension cords, or a generator.
2. You need to make sure the ambient temperature is 70 degrees or higher.
3. You may need some tape for any gaps, and an extra super to set on top of the
provided foam lid to hold it down while providing adequate ventilation.
4. Notably absent from these requirements? Chemical resistant gloves, eye
protection suitable for fog/vapor/sublimation, and a respirator.
Since I was running mostly singles, I started with a couple of those and decided to
test it’s effectiveness on the doubles and triples I had, last. Since customers had been
asking, and I was investing the time and money into testing these devices, I was
determined to keep records as well as I could.
(Assuming my chicken scratch, glove and wind hampered notes can be trusted, I’ll
provide what I was able to translate into spreadsheet data at the end!)
It’s important to note that the following experience as a first time user of thermal
treatment, although common, isn’t necessarily representative of a typical treatment.
I’m just relating what I did, how I did it to some extent, and why.
But it makes for an entertaining story that can save time for users of this product
who, having read this, will know better what happens, and what parts of the process
will continue on WITHOUT the intense scrutiny I’m describing.
And yes, I did a mite wash and counted nine on the first hive prior to treatment.
As you can imagine, I was very cautious with my first treatments to be very sure I was doing this correctly. And I remember, my goal was to test this process, so starting with a “before” alcohol mite wash was an important step.
I reviewed the instructions and got to work.
I slid the thermal board/heating plate into the fully open entrance easily. It fit nicely and sat solidly on the bottom board, covering the screen on the first hive. (I had a mix of both screened and solid bottom boards.)
Following the directions closely, I placed the sensor on
top of the middle frame of the bottom brood box, which was easy enough given that
I was starting with singles. Then I made sure the connection to the control unit was good.
I put the provided insulation board on top instead of the migratory lid, and then placed an empty medium on top of the foam insulation board to hold it in place, and placed the migratory lid back on top of the empty super, leaving it gapped, or open by a couple of inches to make sure it was well vented. And since my first test was on a single, I didn’t have to worry about taping/sealing any gaps between brood boxes etc.
I put the specially provided entrance reducer on the front. It was designed so that it
had just enough room for the cable to the heating element on one side and only
enough room for a bee or two at a time to make their way in and out of the opening
at the other side.
This special reducer was intended to keep the heat in and make it harder for
the bees to work against the process while the hive was getting up to
treatment temperature.
Nervously, I plugged in the control unit last, and three lights blinked as the
computerized controller did a “Power On Self Test”. I was one button push away
from starting the process. So, I gave it one last look and started it up.
What was going to happen??? Would all of my wax melt? Would my bees pile up dead? Would my queen abscond, stop laying, or worse let, lose viability or die???? Scary stuff, right? :-)
I watched, intently while the blinking blue light indicated it wasn’t yet up to the correct temperature.
A few bees started piling up a little at the much smaller entrance as it took fifteen to twenty minutes to switch from blinking blue to blinking green
indicating the hive had reached treatment temperature.
I pulled the entrance reducer out a couple inches and stood back to watch…and
watch…and watch…
The green light blinked red a few times indicating that the temperature in the brood
nest had reached a tenth of a degree higher than the target, and the thermal board had turned off and stopped heating for a while. As the temperature came back down
to the ideal 106 degrees, the green light resumed it’s blinking.
The beard on the front of the hive got bigger, and bigger as more and more bees piled out in a futile attempt to lower the hive temperature.
And more and more foragers were coming in to deposit the resources they had gathered.
It made sense on seeing this why ventilation is SO important. Imagine how much oxygen the bees use to try and cool down their hive into the normal range! If the hive was sealed too tightly, asphyxiation would be a risk!
This cycle continued…and continued…and continued…for two and a half hours!
That’s a LOT of time, right?
But not to worry! I was only sticking around for the full cycle because it was my
first time using it.
As I gained more confidence and experience I was able to start the process, and once
the entrance reducer was pulled away, I could walk away, go do other things (like
start a second hive’s thermal treatment process, and just let the treatment complete
on it’s own.
Please note that it is CRITICAL to make sure the ventilation is correct, and to
remove the entrance reducer once the hive reaches treatment temperature. So set
an alarm on your phone or something! (That’s what I did).
While observing the process, and watching the bees beard more and more, I also
noticed something else that was fascinating…
Small hive beetles were LEAVING the hive, right out the front entrance, and
right into direct sunlight!
But more about SHB later.
When the treatment concluded, the controller switched automatically to a solid
color to indicate it was done. I started the process of removing the thermal
treatment equipment.
Even with heavy bearding going on, being a single deep configuration, it wasn’t
difficult to lift the lid, empty super, and foam insulation board off, in order to
remove the sensor.
I carefully slid the thermal board out of the entrance, and to my amazement (and my
concern) it looked like someone had taken a pepper shaker to the board! There
were a few dead bees, a few puddles of wax (from comb hanging down below the
frames) and there, dead on the board, surrounded by varroa, were a dozen or two
small hive beetles!
A two for one SCORE!
My beekeeping buddies had been referring to the thermal treatment as a “bee microwave” and scoffed at it’s use!
But I have to admit, I was as impressed as I was concerned at this point.
Yes, I was impressed at its obvious effectiveness, and at the same time I was
concerned about the brood, the queen, and the colony as a whole.
There wasn’t a giant puddle of wax. But those bees had bearded out like crazy!
Had I done something wrong?
Were they going to go back in?
Had I forced them to abscond?
I had all kinds of questions at this point, mostly around potential damage to the
colony as a whole.
Had I ventilated it properly?
Had I killed off the queen?
Damaged her fertility?
I resolved to monitor the other hive I started VERY closely as well because it was an
eight frame!
Despite my concern I was committed to testing the equipment, the process, etc.
myself, on my own hives, before I could speak to it, or at some point potentially
recommend it to others.
Why risk it? Why try something scary and new like this?
It made sense to me from a biological, mammalian perspective, to compare the
thermal treatment of a colony to how a human might get a fever.
We get a fever to rid our bodies of infections. So I wondered… since varroa is a
vector for other diseases, could the same thermal treatment that killed of the varroa
ALSO help reduce or eliminate some of the diseases brought by the varroa?
What if heating up the bees also reduced the diseases they already had, either from
varroa, or just in general?
I found myself wishing I had the equipment and knowledge to test for viral or bacterial load in the hives, to do a before and after test for that as well!
In any case, giving an entire hive a ‘fever’ made sense to me from this perspective, so I forged ahead, and started two more hives.
I checked back on the first two hives while the second pair started running and the
bearding lessened. Over time as the bees were allowed to succeed in their task of
cooling the hive, they simply made their way back inside.
Somewhat surprisingly their behavior hadn’t become any more aggressive. In fact, the opposite occurred.
Perhaps it was because they had to focus on cooling and ventilating the hive so much that I was less a bother to them.
Maybe, they were just enjoying a bee sauna!
By the time the third and fourth hives had reached their treatment temperature, I did what any beekeeper would…
I glanced at the first two hives and saw they were getting back to normal and then went inside. I took off my bee suite, got a drink, toweled the sweat off, and cooled down some, confident that the process would complete successfully without my monitoring it constantly.
Truth be told, I DID toss a veil on and go check a couple of times prior to completion,
wanting and to see how the first two were “recovering” from the treatment. But
everything continued as expected. The other hives returned to normal, went about
their business, and before my alarm went off to check the second set of hives, I had
decided to do a “post treatment” inspection.
I even went digging through the first few hives in fact, just to make sure the queens were still alive. And they were!
The third and fourth hives treated completed and reacted the same way, bearding to
an extent that I wondered if the bees outside the hive were getting any benefit from
the heat. And…they were.
I was able to find out with further research that the brood nest was the most
important part of the hive to treat, as new bees hatching would be healthier and
mite free. Even if the bees on the outside of the hive weren’t up to the full 106
degrees, they were getting temps close enough in the heat streaming out of the hive
that the mites on them were becoming sterile.
This begs the question: Why don’t mites, exposed to heat when the bees are flying
around in triple digit heat, die out?
A couple of thoughts occurring to me involve the position of varroa, on the underside of the bee, between the plates where it feeds on the fat body organ protect the hidden mite to some degree.
Even if sterilizing some of the mites outside of the hive from external temperatures was happening, the breeding mites INSIDE the hive, UNDER the capped brood, would likely be outpacing the mites dying outside the hive by a significant ratio.
This is likely similar to the reason OA treatments aren’t very effective when brood is
present. Even if you manage to kill ALL of the mites on the bees themselves, and
even those in the open brood cells, the mites UNDER the capped brood are still
going to outbreed the ones that are killed off!
This is also why OA might have a really good knock down, and a week to ten days
later, the hive still has a significant mite load when you do your mite wash. They are
on the new bees that hatch out!
To get back to and continue the story, similar results presented themselves from
significant mite drops, through hive beetles dying and scurrying away and a small
but varying number of dead bees.
The dead bees I understood were likely old and weak bees, or bees that the varroa had been feeding on the longest.
By now, I guess I was noticing that none of my hives so far had what I would call a higher mite count than others. But it is common practice to treat the entire bee yard, as a unit.
And I had customers with mite counts with thirty, fifty, and some even higher. In fact, by the time I got around to editing and finishing this article, the largest mite count I had ever seen (on a hive that successfully wintered) was 127!
Keeping in mind that I am not a strictly treatment free beekeeper, I managed these bees pretty carefully. Full disclosure, all of these bees had been treated with OA sublimation (4 treatments 1 week apart) early in the spring. So I wouldn’t have expected a horrendously high mite count either.
Back to the story. I called it a day, having treated the first four of thirty, with the intention of treating all of them over the next few days. Simple math put my burden at three treatments per day for four days, and an extra treatment on the fifth day. Plus, I was going to be comparing results toward the end of the week on double and triple deeps!
Days two and three were singles, with similar results, and I was still bemoaning the
time it took to do the treatments. But I kept at it.
By Day four, I was into the doubles.
The warm up process took a little longer, and I had to start using tape, as the
directions indicated, to cover where the first and second deeps met. In a few cases it
took two warm up cycles to get up to the mite kill temperature, and with larger
hives, there were larger beards to contend with.
It got a little more complicated inserting and removing the temperature sensor, and care had to be taken to either brush away or smoke away some of the bees piled up on the outside when tilting back and then lowering the second deep brood box to minimize the number of bees squished. Remember, the sensor goes on top of the middle frame, in the bottom brood box! In a double deep, that can be dead center of a brood nest that extends upwards into the second deep!
I eventually realized that giving them time to cool down a little and start dispersing on their own after the treatment ended made the process easier. But then we were talking about more time!
With bigger brood nests came larger mite counts and bigger mite drops. But with
larger hives and more places to hide, less small hive beetles were dropping and
dying.
By the fifth day I was wishing I had a couple more thermal boards (and that the
treatment was faster)! I only had a couple of triples left to do. After a couple warm
up cycles and lots of tape I was able to get them to work. And although it was still
somewhat effective on the mites, there were zero hive beetles dead on the board. I
think the small hive beetles just made their way up into the top and waited it out!
I was quickly realizing that the MOST effective configuration for this treatment for
BOTH varroa and small hive beetles was a single deep brood box.
The next most effective configuration was a one and a half story or a double deep, both of which seemed just as effective for varroa, but were slightly less effective for small hive beetles. And the last, triple deep configuration seemed a little less effective for mites, and almost completely ineffective for small hive beetles.
Naturally, more testing and observation was in order in regards to small hive
beetles, but before I went on to do that testing, I wanted to conclude testing on the
intended pest, the mites. So I watched and waited another couple of days.
I had been pre-warned that the bees might start opening up infected brood chambers with dead mites in them, and might pull larvae from them. And I did see some of this as the bees cleaned up their hive. So I didn’t worry too much about it and let the bees do their thing.
I couldn’t help myself, and pulled a frame or two after a few days, and was a little shocked at how the brood pattern had changed.
Some of the brood frames were solid patterns, and looked great before the treatment. Now some of them looked spotty, as some of the larvae had been pulled. The queen hadn’t laid eggs back in the frames I looked at, so I just put them back and crossed my fingers for improvement when I came back to do another mite wash on the 7th day.
I wanted there to be a full week between the time I treated the hive and when I retested.
So, seven days later, I was back to hives one through four! And then the next set of hives the next day, and so on!
I was using quite a bit of alcohol and killing another 300 bees per hive to test this process, and again, the brood patterns were starting to look spotty.
Even while doing the follow up mite counts I was wishing the treatment process was faster (and that I had more boards available for use) but I was no longer questioning the
effectiveness.
And I was confident it wasn’t killing off queens and healthy brood, but I had to wait another couple of weeks to see the full effects.
I’ll note that NONE of these hives had an extremely high mite count to begin with, but still, I got significantly reduced mites and zero hive beetles in hives one and two.
The same mite count was true for all four of the hives from day one’s treatment, but
I did see ONE hive beetle scrambling around in hive six, which could have been a
recent arrival.
Since hive beetles do most of their encroachment at night, I didn’t worry too much
about the single beetle. Rather, I felt I had discovered a great method for getting hive
beetles out of a hive once they had already taken up residence, so that mechanical
methods for keeping hive beetles out would be more effective.
I added some guardian entrances to the mix for those colonies to see if I could keep
the hive beetles from getting back in. I also screened off any other gaps and vents, and tossed in a some swiffers in, more to establish a count of beetles inside the hive
and gage their numbers than as a means of controlling them. I’ll write more about guardian entrances at another time perhaps. Some find them gimmicky, but they seem to work nicely, without the messy traps and poisons you might otherwise add.
I have to take a moment and mention that the results were impressive enough that
despite the ribbing I was getting from my friends that were more experienced and
larger scale beekeepers, I had to mention it to them.
Naturally, they were expecting my thermally treated bees to die out, lose viability,
etc. They were still expecting it. So I didn’t say much more, or go into any more
detail about how extensively I was testing them. I just scribbled out my notes and
continued on.
The mite washes continued, for the all of the thirty hives in my education and
testing yard.
At the 14 day mark, all of the singles had a LOW mite count, and every now and then I saw a beetle or two. More accurate numbers are noted in the graphs and data at the end of this article.
Also, all of the doubles had a much lower mite count, and fewer hive beetles than previously seen. And of the two triples I treated, the mite count had dropped dramatically as well, the highest being 6 mites, and the lowest being 4. They had been in the 18 and 11 mite count range prior to treatment.
Now, who could say if those remaining mites were sterile or not? Or if they had
come from other places? But it was improvement for sure.
By the time I got to the 21 day mark, the mite counts were about as low as I would
have expected with multiple rounds of OA, and use of mite strips!
Again, more detailed information can be found at the end of this article, but I was very happy with the results, if not the time it took to get those results!
Also observed, was a change in the demeanor of SOME colonies. Some of them with
higher mite counts became noticeably calmer. Of course, there were a couple that
were generally angry and no change in behavior was noticed. But it is worth
mentioning because, setting other environmental and conditional factors aside
(dearth, losing a queen, etc.) you could imagine bees that are healthier, behaving
better than those under stress.
Overall, I was pleased, with everything except the time it took to do the treatments.
For all intents and purposes, I was done with my own series of tests, when I
repeated the treatment in the fall, with similar results.
What I considered the ‘ultimate’ test was to come.
What would these bees look like over the next year?
Would the queens burn out early?
Would they survive as well as the hundred or so OTHER hives they were going to get tossed in with?
All of my hives were thermally treated in Missouri, (eastern side of the Kansas City
Metropolitan Area). The bees they were going to Texas with had not had any
thermal treatments, and my bees would go back to a more typical treatment
regimen.
A good friend wanting to take bees to the great state of Texas? You know, where it stays warmer year round, rarely gets cold enough to kill off moths, where mites and SHB are a problem year round?
That Texas.
Intimidating, right?
I decided I would help him, and we would take eighteen of my hives for good measure!
The trip was a great adventure, perhaps to share another time. But the relevant part of the thermal treatment story is in the way we combined my singles, with many more of his singles, into a yard with 100 total.
My eighteen had a fall thermal treatment in addition to the summer thermal
treatment I detailed previously. His eighty two had not. My eighteen had screened
vents in the lids (to keep SHB out), his eighty two did not.
And, truth be known, all hundred in this yard as well as the other hives in other
yards had received at least one blast of oxalic acid before we loaded them up (it was
cold and they were relatively broodless before we left the KC area).
But a month or two later, we did a few mite washes on his and a few mite washes on mine.
Of course it wasn’t a completely thorough count, but my hives had lower mite counts!
Zero in a couple of cases, compared to his!
Bragging rights among friends was good enough for me, but it helped further my appreciation for another tool in the beekeepers bag.
More work was to be done with these bees, and when we started doing splits, the viability of the queens would show.
If the queen’s viability, in eggs, in laying, etc. had been impacted, it would show in
how well they brooded up, how well the colonies survived, and how well they held
up in general to the splits.
We were ROUGH on these colonies, splitting and chopping them up mercilessly, over
numerous trips.
Even though we had a few dead outs that were most likely robbed out from some
more established colonies near by (we weren’t aware of them when we placed our
hives) they performed just as well, or even slightly better in a couple of cases, than
the ones that had not had any thermal treatments.
They were chopped so hard over the next few visits that they were eventually
absorbed into the overall production, in the hectic, muddy, and difficult Texas
beekeeping experiment.
And the time and speed didn’t allow for any more thermal treatments, or observations.
But for my purposes, I was satisfied. The boards worked exactly as advertised, and
even exceeded my initial expectations, controlling small hive beetles as well.
I don’t have the equipment or expertise to determine bacterial/viral loads, so
determining the effectiveness in this regard would have to wait.
Reflecting on the use of these innovative devices, I have to mention again that NOT
having to wear a respirator, eye protection, and rubber gloves was a relief! Since the
thirty hives I initially tested with were close enough to use extension cords, I didn’t
even have to breath exhaust from a generator.
And I should mention that I use a ProVap 110, roughly a $500 tool to be able to
sublimate OA and treat hives quickly, so spending some extra money on better tools
makes sense to me.
At this point, the only thing remaining for me to evaluate is something I failed to
evaluate in another product that I reviewed a while back. Durability.
How would the equipment hold up?
How many treatments could I do with a given thermal board?
A few hives?
One season? Two?
Well, I’m happy to say that both of my initially purchased thermal treatment
boards from www.beehivethermalindustries.com have lasted through roughly a hundred treatments, and are into their second season treating hives. I’m confident enough to use them for customer’s hives now.
And, although they are showing signs of wear, remember that I transport and use
them frequently. I rent/loan them out occasionally. They don’t necessarily get
maintained as well as they should.
They have gotten rained on.
They are getting dirtier and dirtier with the dead mites,
hive beetles, and sick or aging bees that drop on them and get scrapped off.
So, while they no longer look new, and some of the cords and connectors are
starting to pull away, they work just as well as they did when they were new.
And, they are not exclusive in regards to their use. Meaning, on a particularly sick
colony, or a colony for a customer that I might not see again until spring, I can toss
in some apivar. I can hit them with OA for a quick knock down. I can use feed based
treatments, put in beetle traps, use mechanical methods for keeping beetles out or
even trapping them. I can EVEN use them with fancy, new, insulated foam and
plastic hives (carefully and with a wooden bottom board) and nucs.
So, they are much more versatile, portable, and cost effective than the large cabinet
heaters or the wire/heat element embedded foundations or custom frames that
some others have come out with. To me, they are simple, letting heat rise naturally
to convectively heat the entire hive, instead of fans or forced air.
My only thoughts for potentially improving the process would be around speed and
ventilation requirements:
1. An optional or included fan/blower mechanism could both improve oxygen and the ventilation and potentially speed up the process, although some thought should be given to the idea of temperature shock for the brood, perhaps?
2. Additional sensors could be added with a way to quickly place them (perhaps a shim or board of some sort, or embedding sensors into an insulated lid) to further ensure the temperature throughout the hive rather than just in the center.
Conclusions: The more I integrate this treatment method into my pest management
regime, the more impressed I am. And as I continue to learn and grow as a
beekeeper, I try to stay up to date on other studies and techniques and innovations
or gadgets that are out there.
Remember my assumption about fevers in mammals compared to creating a ‘fever’
in a colony with thermal treatment earlier in this article?
I recently saw a reference to specific studies for thermal treatment in reduction of
viruses and bacterial diseases.
It again makes me wish I had the time, the equipment, and the funding to evaluate and document this more scientifically myself! I might be sending off samples to a laboratory next season to try and determine some of this!
In another note, a late update if you will, I was told that Dr. Samuel Ramsey is
studying thermal treatment, and is using these same boards.
If you don’t know who he is, find out! Excellent videos and articles describe his huge contribution to understanding varroa mites and debunking a number of strongly and wrongly held beliefs. In any case, I’m certain his evaluation will be much more credible and helpful than mine.
If you like the story, information, and thoughts I shared, and it resonates with you, I
encourage you to try thermal treatment and share your experiences with me!
If you like my reasoning in going with the thermal board instead of the custom
enclosures, or heated frames, or lids with moving parts, and you want to order a
“Mighty Mite Killer” from www.beehivethermalindustries.com, please let them
know you were referred from www.BeeResQ.com and take a minute to give us a like
on Facebook and follow us on YouTube by searching for BeeResQ!
When I started this study, on my own, and gathered this data I had NO financial interest or obligation. Since completing the study, I have become an affiliate of sorts, so that I will receive a small referral bonus from the manufacturer. So, IF you do decide to order one (or more) of these units, PLEASE remember to tell them
www.BeeResQ.com sent you.
Beekeeping can be expensive, and when I go out and buy products to test for my customers, it’s out of my own pocket. So any help, even a like or two on a facebook page, is appreciated! :-)
ALSO! If there is a (beekeeping related) product YOU are curious about, but don’t
want to test, let us know. Maybe we can go buy and test them for you.
Currently on the list for additional testing are:
Apimaye Insulated Hives (additional testing in 2020)
Better Bee Synthetic Comb (testing planned for spring 2020)
PermaComb Plastic Comb (testing complete - review pending)
Take care!
-Mike www.BeeResQ.com
See additional DATA for Review below: (removed for blog post)
Summer Mite Numbers: (removed for blog post)
Fall Mite Numbers: (removed for blog post)
Summer Small Hive Beetle Numbers: (removed for blog post)
Fall Small Hive Beetle Numbers: (removed for blog post)