After the honey harvest, the focus of the garden beekeeper is on feeding the bee colonies for the winter and on controlling the varroa mite. 

The standard procedure for varroa mite control is to evaporate formic acid in the colony over an extended period of time. Formic acid also penetrates the capped brood cells, where the majority of the mites reside. However, it is highly aggressive: during its application, most of the brood is destroyed, many bees and sometimes even the queen are burned and die miserably. This acid is also dangerous for the user.

Much gentler is a biotechnical method, in which a brood pause is brought about by caging the queen on a banning honeycomb, the mites are collected in a catching honeycomb and this is then removed and destroyed: A good three weeks after the queen is caged, brood is only on the captive comb; the rest of the colony is brood-free. The mites move into the brood cells on the banning comb, turning it into a capture comb. Finally, there are several mites in each individual cell. This highly parasitized honeycomb is removed after the cells are capped and melted down together with the mites, and the queen is released again.

This alternative method is highly effective, because a large part of the mites is removed from the colony. It certainly has its pitfalls, but if everything works, then acid treatment can be dispensed with.