Mite Washes- Soap VS Alcohol
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- Опубліковано 22 жов 2022
- After hearing about using dish soap for mite washes, I was a bit skeptical that it would be as effective as alcohol.
But I couldn't know for sure until I tried it for myself. In my trials I found soap to give the same or comparable results.
The only thing I dislike about the soap was the suds. I felt like the suds impeded the agitation with the shaker cup. I possibly do shake more vigorously than necessary.
The biggest perk the soap had for me was that it's cheap and easy to keep a bucket full to rinse and toss. Using alcohol, I always feel like I should save and reuse it, even though it's cheap enough.
Gus, thank you for the comparison of the mite wash media! Great video! From the opposite side of Arkansas!
Very good comparison test . I have not used the soap wash test yet because I tried to use up my alcohol that I have but by what I am seeing from others and you I will be going to soap . THANKS
Got ‘em fired up Gus. They remind me of some of my bees! Good stuff.
It should save some money using the soap. Thanks for the video Gus.
Gus, I’m like you, I hate those long veils. They make them like they’re going to be worn by horses. I took big safety pins and pinned one I bought so it wouldn’t stretch out so long when I leaned my head forward. My next one will be a Guardian with a round veil!
As clumsy as I am using 90% alcohol with a smoker close by could spell disaster, that for me is one good reason to use the dawn.
Good vid! If I recall Greg Burns done a comparison where he rewashed the same bees. I don't remember the numbers but he washed a sample in alcohol and then poured it out and put in the soapy water and washed the same bees again and it yielded a few more mites. That's why I've switched to soap instead of alcohol
Soap has proved a lot more accurate for me at least. And its more easy to get than alcohol... I've been converted since spring :D
Randy Oliver recommends 2 tablespoons per gallon of cool water. Not sure that it would make much difference as you clearly show but I believe that's who Kamon is referencing.
I always wonder why they go after the camera and mic, think it could be the infared auto focus or just they feel the electronics frequencies emitted? I played around my hives guard bees with a green Lazer pin and they did nothing.
Great video, I always enjoy hearing your insights on beekeeping. On the spicy hive, do you have plans to re-queen in spring or just put up with it? The reason I ask is I have a couple out of about 50 in my backyard that have become very defensive, reminds me of that one. I think I will try to re-queen in the spring so those genetics don't increasing in my apiary.
No I won’t requeen it, I won’t raise queens or drones from it though.
I was hoping you'd rewash the same bees with alkyd after the Dawn and viscera, to see is any more mites showed up.
Thanks Gus! Looking forward to trying the dish soap as well. Could you please share what your favorite bee suit, and bee yard boots are? Also are those the heavy duty harbor freight Nitrile gloves you're using? Thanks!
I don’t have a favorite suit, wish I did.
For boots I prefer a non-steel toed slip on boot with a wedge sole. The wedge doesn’t pick up mud.
Yes, HF 9mil nitrile gloves, my favorite.
dawn supposed to release mites better,randy oliver did 2 teaspoons per gal,and swirl
Bought gaurdian jacket last spring never again.. been fighting zippers sense day one.. veils are nice they have zipper get drink of water or whatever don't have to pull the veil off .. jacket itself they need better zippers
Seems like all these suits are sourced from the same place. I heard about a good suit coming out from a newer company I’m hoping to check out
theyre feisty
I bought one of Mann Lake's ProVent jackets, and the hood on it is even longer than yours. When I put it on, the front of the veil hung down so low that I could not see out of it except by looking down toward my chest. This was not evident in the picture shown in their catalog. The veil was only made useable when I tacked the front three sections together at the top with carpet thread. I called Mann Lake to complain and was asked to email them pictures, which I did, but never received a reply. A second email also was never acknowledged. I used to buy a lot of my equipment from Mann Lake, but have now pretty much stopped buying from them.
The economy vented suit was the only thing I liked that they had. Now it’s different, I’m not a fan of ML
Do you test much throughout the year? Or just towards the end when it's usually treatment time?
At this point with how my bees are doing just twice a year.
That said my bees are testing consistently below treatment threshold for years.
It’s important to have a baseline and know where your numbers are, so can plan accordingly.
Hey Gus, thanks for doing this video. I’ve been thinking if trialing it myself. I’ve heard a lot of people say that the dawn works better but I don’t want to deal with the suds. Lol. I’ll prolly stick with the alcohol.
Just swirl, no need to shake, keeps the suds down.
Do you treat the hives with low mite counts any way? If so why
I keep a yard treatment free, but all the rest do get treated once annually.
Why? To kill mites, I want them going into winter clean as possible.
There your bees, I'd like to know the honey production numbers for the spicy strain versus the milder strain , yeah I know aggressive bees can be a pain to work (they'd been tolerable with smoke I'd bet), but if their honey production is better and their hygienics are better, I could tolerate being a bit "spicy" (new word Greg @ nature image came up with for mean azz bees lol)
That colony in particular made about 8 medium supers, better than average.
But there were some other super stars in that yard that aren’t trying to pin my britches to my legs
OK, you kinda make my point, if you had a production yard that produced like that one, it'd be worth it to suit up better and make sure you've got plenty of smoke and work that yard during good flows when you know they're n the field, the reason I say that is my highest producer's are pretty spicy, but that's how I deal with them, IDK why but they seem to have more guard bees than most hives, when I have to deep into those hives I break out my 3 layer BeeAttire suit and goat skin gloves, for others I have a cheap $38 Amazon single layer suit and use the 9 mil nyrile $.50 a pair gloves. 😉
@@carlsledge3868 yeah it would be worth it. But I’m a queen breeder so my goal is to have it all 😂
LOL, you think they might stole the extra honey from the lesser hives?
No I don’t think so