sugar roll test?

[scottybee]

evening;
Im not so sure that I did my sugar roll tet right but this is what I did:
Placed 2 tsp. confectener sugar in a quart jar , placed 1/8 inch hardware cloth inside a widemouth mason jar lid . With lid off as I was brushing off my super brushed about 1/4 of the jar full of bees replaced the lid rolled the bees around for about a min. then shook the sugar out into another jar. took off the lid and returned the bees to the hive. Took the jar home and poured the sugar onto a white piece of typwriting paper. what I found was nothing , just sugar . question is did I do this right and if I did is it safe to say I have no mites?
Scott

[mark williams]

Sound's to me like you done it the right way.

[BjornBee]

The only thing to consider is the fine line between shaking too hard and injuring the bees and not hard enough for the mites to fall off. Other than that its sounds correct.

[Michael Bush]

The only thing I'd do different is get some bees from the brood chamber next time. They are more likely to have mites than the field bees.

[WineMan]

powdered sugar is rather convenient and i like it for a quick test. i find that the longer you let the bees roll in it the better. it seems to take a bit of time for the sugar to dislodge those little buggers.

[Axtmann]

That’s very time consuming and gives you only an idea about the Varroa on your bees. Blow up 2 grams oxalic acid, it takes only a minute and two days later you can see on the sticky board what’s going on in your hives. Its easy to find out if the hive is infected or not. If there is an Varroa infection your test will also kill all mites outside the cells. It also tells you whether your little mites are Apistran resistant or not.

[odfrank]

How does one "blow up" two grams of oxalic acid ?

[wayacoyote]

Yeah, I always thought you "dropped" acid??
hmmm does it still give you a "buzz" that way?

[Axtmann]

If you’re like to know how an oxalic acid vaporizer works
http://www.members.shaw.ca/orioleln/Vaporizer.htm
http://www.mellifera.de/Engli2.pdf
http://www.mellifera.de/engl2.htm