Victoria · alcohol-wash monitoring · complements BeeMAX
Victorian Varroa mite-wash monitoring — is your treatment actually working?
A free, standardised alcohol-wash record for Victorian beekeepers. Enter your wash counts and it shows whether your mites are below the action threshold — and, after treating, whether the treatment actually worked.
Found Varroa? Reporting is required by law. Report it to Agriculture Victoria first — then use this tool to track whether your treatment is working.
The Victorian situation in 2026
Varroa was first confirmed in Victoria in August 2024. The two-year Transition to Management program ran until February 2026. The big change since then is chemical resistance: in 2026, Victorian mites were confirmed resistant to pyrethroids (Bayvarol, Apistan) and to formamidines (Apivar, Apitraz) — the two main synthetic treatment groups.
That’s why monitoring after treatment now matters so much. You can no longer assume a strip worked. The official advice is to check your mite levels after treating, rotate between chemical groups, and use non-chemical methods where you can. This tool is built around that check.
How the tool works
It follows the standard alcohol-wash method — a sample of around 300 bees, washed to dislodge the mites, counted across washes. You enter your counts and the tool does the rest:
- Calculates your mites per 100 bees automatically.
- Tells you whether you’re above or below the action threshold for your colony’s brood phase.
- If you’re checking an earlier treatment, it shows whether the mites have dropped below threshold — a plain-language read on whether the treatment worked.
- Reminds you to rotate chemical groups and to report suspected treatment failures through the official channel.
New to alcohol washes, or want the full method step by step? Read the mite-wash field guide — or download the printable PDF to take to the apiary.
Reporting in Victoria — the official channels
This tool complements official reporting; it does not replace it. In Victoria:
- Report a Varroa detection or suspected treatment failure: Exotic Plant Pest Hotline 1800 084 881.
- Record your inspections (positive and negative): via BeeMAX, which feeds the Victorian Varroa Surveillance Map.
- Advice and support: Bee Biosecurity Officers on 136 186, and agriculture.vic.gov.au/varroa.
Reporting helps everyone — it builds the official picture of where Varroa and resistance are spreading. Always report through these channels first.
Part of something bigger
Victoria is the first state in this beekeeper-led surveillance initiative. Every wash you submit helps build an anonymised, aggregate picture of mite pressure and treatment performance across the state. Regional trends become clear with a modest amount of data; saying honestly whether a particular treatment is still working takes many more before-and-after records — so the more beekeepers take part, the sooner we can answer the question that matters most. We never publish thin numbers or anything that could identify an individual.
Read more about the initiative and how the data builds, or get in touch if you’d like to help.