Lesson 57: Using Mite Treatments Legally and Safely

The label is the law: registered products, honey safety, and protecting yourself

Mite treatments are pesticides. Using them the right way protects your bees, your honey, the people who eat it, and you. Using them the wrong way can kill bees, contaminate honey, make mites resistant, and break federal law.

Use only registered products

In the United States, pesticides used in beehives must be registered by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for that use. EPA keeps a current list of products registered to control varroa mites in beehives. The active ingredients include amitraz, formic acid, oxalic acid, thymol, hop beta acids, fluvalinate, coumaphos, sucrose octanoate, and newer products such as a dsRNA product registered in 2025.

Check the EPA list, and your state's rules, before using anything. States can have stricter requirements than federal law.

Home-made or off-label treatments are a problem. EPA has issued an advisory because beekeepers were using substances like oxalic acid, formic acid, amitraz and thymol bought in forms not registered for beehives (for example, cleaning-grade oxalic acid or livestock amitraz products). Even though the chemical is the same, the product isn't registered for hives, and:

• using an unregistered product can leave residues in honey, comb or pollen that aren't covered by a legal tolerance, and honey with illegal residues is "adulterated"; selling or distributing it violates federal food law;
• EPA considers it unlikely that anyone who sells honey, bees or pollination services qualifies for any "personal use" exception.

The label is the law

Using a registered pesticide in any way not consistent with its label is a violation of federal law. Read the entire label before you use a product, and follow every direction:

• The dose. More is not better; overdosing can kill bees or the queen.
• When it may be used, including whether honey supers may be on. Many products must not be used when supers are on, or require a waiting period before supers go back on. Honey harvested in violation of the label can't be sold.
• Temperature limits. Some products harm bees in heat or don't work in cold (lesson 56).
• How long to leave it in, and when to remove it.
• Storage and disposal.
• Protective equipment you must wear.

Don't use expired products, and don't mix products unless the label says you may.

Protect yourself

Some mite treatments are hazardous to people. Formic acid and oxalic acid can burn skin, eyes and lungs, especially oxalic acid vapor. The label will list the personal protective equipment required, which may include chemical-resistant gloves, eye protection and a respirator. Wear it every time. Keep products away from children and pets.

Keep records

For every treatment, write down (lesson 41): - the date, product, EPA registration number, and amount; - which hives were treated; - the mite count before, and a follow-up count afterward; - when supers were removed and replaced.

Good records help you rotate products, prove honey safety, and see what works.

Keep honey clean

• Remove honey supers before treatments whose labels require it.
• Don't harvest honey that was on the hive during a treatment unless the label allows it.
• Never feed treated syrup while supers are on.

What to remember

• Use only EPA-registered mite products, and check your state's rules.
• The label is the law: dose, timing, temperature, supers on or off, protective gear, disposal.
• Unregistered "home-made" treatments can leave illegal residues and make honey unsellable.
• Protect yourself (acids can burn), and record every treatment.

Quick check

1. Why can't you just buy cleaning-grade oxalic acid and use it in your hives?
2. Is it legal to use a registered miticide at a higher dose than the label says?
3. Name two things the label will tell you that affect your honey.

Adapted from: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, EPA-Registered Pesticide Products Approved for Use Against Varroa Mites in Bee Hives and Advisory on the Applicability of FIFRA and FFDCA for Substances Used to Control Varroa Mites in Beehives (2023); Honey Bee Health Coalition, Tools for Varroa Management (9th ed., 2026); USDA Agricultural Research Service, When to Sample.

Adapted from university Extension sources. Experienced Georgia beekeepers are reviewing these lessons. See something that doesn't match your experience? Tell us.