The Journal of the Victorian Apiarists' Association
By Kris Fricke (& substantial quotes from Bruce Ward) Werribee Mystery Mite On the evening of Monday April 6th Werribee area beekeeper David Ross posted on the Werribee Beekeepers‟ facebook page: Tonight I had a bee come inside that was clearly struggling, I put it out of its misery with a cloth and a large … Read more
By Kris Fricke What do you think when you hear the term PMS? What if your friend tells you, as you catch him getting out of his bee truck looking harried, “ah, mate, the girls have PMS”? “Parasitic Mite Syndrome” was coined in the United States in 1994 when both tracheal and varroa mites were … Read more
As we approach our first Victorian winter with varroa mites, we must be even more careful to consider colony health. Bees in winter are different from those of the rest of the year. Instead of a work-weary demise after about 6 weeks, winter bees are longer lived. Indeed in climates much colder than ours, they … Read more
Fat Bodies and Vitellogenin By Kris Fricke The cute animated video you’ve probably all seen during the national Varroa training sessions, other than having the bees’ hindwings in front of their forewings perpetuated another misconception by way of an almost imperceptible pause in the wrong place. In saying “Varroa feeds one the bees fat … Read more
What temperature tells us about the health of a bee colony By Theotime Colin As beekeeping sensors become increasingly available and affordable, the pollination industry is eyeing the promise of a reduction of beekeeping costs and colony losses (https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00218839.2025.2552530) . Recent advances in our understanding of temperature regulation by bee colonies provide the first tangible … Read more
Andrew Wootton First the bad news I wrote of the dangers of miticide resistance developing in Australia in December’s ABJ.[1] Alarmingly, resistance to Bayvarol has already been reported from NSW in the AHBIC News of 11th February[2] and now on the 27th February, a further occurrence in Queensland is announced.[3] With the NSW mites, pyrethroid … Read more
By Andrew Wootton With several varroa detections in metropolitan Melbourne and the Victorian varroa heat map looking like a Christmas pudding, we can safely assume that you either already have mites in your hive or will have this season.So it was encouraging to attend the Melbourne Section club meeting on the 29th January and see … Read more
Extracts From The AHBIC January newsletter Do you know what miticide resistance is? Miticide resistance happens when some Varroa mites carry genetic traits that make them less likely to be killed by a specific chemical treatment. Within any mite population, there is natural variation — a few indi-viduals may, by chance, have genetic differences (e.g., … Read more
By Mike Allerton The powdered sugar shake has been widely promoted as the gentler option for monitoring Varroa destructor, especially among hobbyist beekeepers who feel uneasy about killing a small sample of bees in an alcohol or soapy water wash. For years, the assumption has been that bees walk away unharmed after being dusted with … Read more
By Andrew Wootton We would all prefer to stick to the organic miticides. However, I’d like to discuss problems with the use of Api-Bioxal that limit its effectiveness. I’m not here to criticise the government (indeed, I’ve been proud to play my own small part in the varroa response and will continue doing everything I … Read more