I have taken alcohol mite was sample from areas where is drone and pollen. I mixed bees from three frames to be accurate. To my surprise I counted 23 mites. There is no capped brood because the hive has swarmed and I have collected already honey for myself and left the rest for them. Should I treat now and if so what method is best?
23 mites per sample-what to do?
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That's like 8%, OAV would kill em all, with no capped brood.
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I didn't know there was a formula for broodless?
The only formula I have seen is: 23 mites ÷ 300 bees = .076 X 100 = 7.7% (7.7 mites per 100 adult bees)
The only formula I have seen is: 23 mites ÷ 300 bees = .076 X 100 = 7.7% (7.7 mites per 100 adult bees)
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Research has shown that if you X it by 1.8 you have a number representative of the total infestation when brooded up, rember the bulk of the mites are in the capped brood see Lee Et Al (2010), https://articles.extension.org/medi...s_for_Varroa_destructor_in_Apis_mellifera.pdf
Most just 2x it for simplicity
You have to rember a wash gives you the percentage of mites to bees in the brood nest. But its not telling you the advrage mites poric mites in the whole hive (with out more math) the brood nest is a much higher number, and its used as its the most stable and repeatable.
as such its just a number, that the bean counters then correlated with the effect on the hive, then backed it up to come up with thresholds that are predictive of pending economic impacts on the hive.
look at it this way… shooting spitball numbers- A bee lives for about 6 weeks and is a nurse for about 1 week, so most of the phoric mites are on 1/6 of the bees
so if you roll 6% on nurse bees that really means something like 2% phoric and 10.8%(6x1.8) overall infestation(if you have brood). So if you roll 6% with no brood its about 1/2 the over all infestation then if there was brood.
Most just 2x it for simplicity
You have to rember a wash gives you the percentage of mites to bees in the brood nest. But its not telling you the advrage mites poric mites in the whole hive (with out more math) the brood nest is a much higher number, and its used as its the most stable and repeatable.
as such its just a number, that the bean counters then correlated with the effect on the hive, then backed it up to come up with thresholds that are predictive of pending economic impacts on the hive.
look at it this way… shooting spitball numbers- A bee lives for about 6 weeks and is a nurse for about 1 week, so most of the phoric mites are on 1/6 of the bees
so if you roll 6% on nurse bees that really means something like 2% phoric and 10.8%(6x1.8) overall infestation(if you have brood). So if you roll 6% with no brood its about 1/2 the over all infestation then if there was brood.
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dpula2: The easiest method at this time of the year,with hot summer temperatures,is to use Apivar strips. Do a search on YouTube for videos on how to install the strips. You can probably buy small amounts of the strips at local bee supply stores if you have them in your area.
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