Hey Shana,

Local pest control companies will not have the treatments that you will need to use in your bee hive. Treatments for your colonies should only be bought from the beekeeping supply companies since these are controlled chemicals and they will be used in a colony that will later be used to store food (honey) it is very important that you do not use anything that may contaminate the wax, wood, or honey.

The important question is should you be treating at all? There are several methods to determine if you even need to treat your colonies. As a matter of fact now that we are this late in the game (fall) I'm wondering if any treatment will be needed.

Since it sounds like you are a newbee I would say that the easiest thing for you to do is a 24 hour sticky sheet test. If there are more than 60 mites on your sticky screen then you'll need to treat if there isn't then you don't need to treat.

If you have a screen bottom then all you need to do is take some shelving paper and attach it to a piece of card board (with the sticky side up)fasten the piece of card board to the bottom of the hive under the screen.

If you don't have a screen bottom, (get one) but in the mean time you can take that same piece of card board and put a piece of screen wire over the shelving paper. Take something (like some small scraps of card board) and put them between the screen wire and shelving paper to raise the wire up so the bees don't stick to it.

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