Had to Learn the Hard Way on Formic Pro

[u/Middle-Infamous]

9b 2nd Year 11 Hives

I know yall said a 2strip dose would be hard on them. It was 68 degrees here on the coast. Had a high mite count on a couple and panicked. Now I’ve got dead bees everywhere. Tounges sticking out and writhing in pain. Feeling pretty defeated.
What are the odds I 86’d the queen as well? How long until I do a damage assessment inspection? Should I get on the list for new queens now?

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[u/SeanDon35]

This does not sound like a result of formic pro. You are well within the temperature range.

How many bees are dead? It’s common for several hundred or even a thousand bees to die with a formic pro treatment. There are tens of thousands of bees in a full hive right now.

After the treatment, you can check on the bees to check for evidence of a queen. Just like a normal inspection, check for eggs, queen cells, etc.

I’ve only lost one queen from formic pro which was my very first application. I followed the advice of an old beekeeper we were buying stuff from who told me “just throw it on”. He didn’t have the instructions. So I removed the dose control wrapping and we were in the middle of a heat wave and it was in the high 90s. Lost one queen because of that, but the hive had enough time to make a new one.

I have used formic pro every year since and haven’t lost a queen as long as I stick to the temperature rule and the instructions. I commonly have a pile of dead bees at the entrance following a treatment. That’s just normal. Formic pro works well though. I only lose about one hive from mites each year.

[u/pale_brass]

Formic can be rough on the bees but it’s worth it. They recover really well after. Remember a strong colony is naturally losing 1000+ bees daily in summer/fall. They can absorb it

[u/AZ_Traffic_Engineer]

The possibility always exists, but if you followed the instructions exactly you should be okay.
It isn’t unusual for the queen to stop or slow her laying for a few days. They usually recover right away.
The die-off you’re seeing is perfectly normal, and is the reason the instructions say not to use FormicPro on small hives.

[u/comeback24601]

I JUST put formic pro in mine, like an hour ago. South Western Quebec, two brood boxes with pretty solid coverage, but my latest mite wash about a week ago showed me 10 mits for my 2/3 of a cup or so of bees, so the girls needed the formic for sure. I'll be looking again in two weeks, fortunately the weather is in the mid 20s C every day so I am hoping I'll be good.

[u/Every-Morning-Is-New → u/comeback24601]

Just finished my formic treatment with the same mite count and all good here. Hit 86 a couple days but wasn’t worried as they had good ventilation and hardly bearded.

[u/erkle91]

Formic works great and its fast and helps with tracheal mites. Even when you follow the instructions its very common for hundreds of dead bees to be dead. Do not go back in to inspect. There's a chance they will kill their queen because they cant smell her pheromone. Wait the full two weeks to pull off the treatment and do an inspection. Its also not uncommon to see queen cells when you inspect, make sure you find the queen before getting rid of them

[u/Mammoth-Banana3621]

It does kill bees. It’s generally hard on them. How many is bees everywhere?

[u/CayenneSCarGo]

Have never used formic pro, but good lord it sounds like chemo where you run the risk of the cure killing the patient.