Place drone combs in colonies and remove them when sealed to lower mite loads. Cull combs carefully. By reducing the amount of drone combs available to colonies, beekeepers can reduce the Varroa population growth rate. Discourage robbing in your apiaries. Robbing exposes your colonies to mite invasion from nearby apiaries and wild colonies.
Mite invasion reduces the time interval between treatments.
Place entrance reducers on colonies in the spring and fall when robbing is most likely to occur. Do not open feed or stack wet supers in the open for bees to rob. Interestingly, the movement of Varroa from untreated colonies will theoretically slow down selection for miticide resistance, however this must be balanced with the increased frequency of treatment required when mite invasion occurs. Unfortunately, many beekeepers are better mite breeders than bee breeders. Protect your beekeeping tools by incorporating miticide resistance management principles into your beekeeping management.