Formic Acid - a beekeeper's persepctive

This was the first treatment I ever used. As mentioned before, the first thing that made me fall in love with it was how easy it is to use and apply (something that is crucial for a new beekeepers with so much information flying at us). The first few times I used it, it was great! I had no issues. But, then in my 3rd year when I used it on an 84 degree day...that is when I began to have some issues.

On the package is states to only use on your colony if the outside temperature is between 55 and 85. I was using Formic Pro, with the Mite Away Quick strip brand the temperature range goes up to 90 degrees rather than 85. Well, even though it was a degree below the 85 degree limit I still had issues with the formic acid burning a lot of brood.

Now this hive was located in the direct sun so I do believe this did play a role in this. It may have been 85 degrees outside but in the hive it was much much hotter with the sun beating down on them and two full deeps packed with honey bees. The formic acid killed nearly 75% of the brood in my colony and at a time of year when I desperately needed my colonies to grow as much as possible to bring in honey stores for the winter, this set my colony back quite a bit.

One other bit of information that I learned recently is the importance of the microbiome in a colony and in the gut of the bee. There are beneficial ties, microbes, and bacteria that all help the colony fight off infection as a whole AND help the individual honey bee fight off viruses and bacterial infections. Without these beneficial "bugs" the colony does not have a way to build a share immune system. Formic acid is well..and acid. Meaning that is does sterilize the hive of all of these beneficial "bugs".

So, as I have learned more and more about honey bees, I noticed that when I treated my colonies with formic acid they began to appear sick. I noticed that they began struggling with different viruses they were coming in contact with. Now some may say that was just the aftermath of varroa mites being present in the colony as they carry numerous viruses that will infect honey bees. But, in a normal colony a honey bee is able to fight off viruses.

This began my journey into the treatment free realm and learning everything I can about honey bees and how varroa mites affect them. I will talk more on this at a later time. But, overall formic acid is a tool in a beekeeper's tool box as it is very effective at killing mites. Every time I have used it, I have seen that it will cut the mite load back by about 50%. Now if you have a colony with a very high mite load..this will not be the end all be all to your varroa mite problems. You will have to use multiple treatments over a duration of time to get it back down. But, formic acid's ability to penetrate the wax cappings on brood cells to kill mites that are reproducing inside the cell make it a beekeeper's most prized weapon against varroa mites.

For more information on Formic Acid and how to apply it, check out this video :)