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Before we take a close look at mite detection methods, I want to share an insight I gleaned from an article in the July issue of the Bee Culture entitled “Asymptomatic, But Infested” by Zachary Lamas. According to that article, drones are very important in understanding mite load and hive health. Generally speaking, mites are attracted to the drones of a colony more than the workers both brood and adults. This means that when there is a large amount of drone brood and a high population of adult drones in a colony, the mites will tend to infest the drone part of the colony, not the workers. Therefore, during the months of June and July, when drones are most populous, the adult workers and worker brood will tend to look healthier.
However, when the drone brood and adult drone population decreases in August and September, all those mites from the drone part of the colony move to the worker part of the colony and the health of the workers and worker brood can deteriorate rapidly. This underscores my proposition of the last few posts that early detection and dealing with mites is very important.
I would love if someone would invent some sort of mite pheromone detector that would electronically alert me when the mite load has reached an unacceptable level. And then it would be a short step to automatically release an appropriate dose amount of an appropriate treatment. Done! Well, the Genesis 3 principle of earning bread by the sweat of my face is still in force. We continually need to take redemptive effort to deal with the effects of the Fall.
Mites can be seen with the naked eye. It doesn’t take a microscope as with nosema or tracheal mites. See the last post for images of what mites look like on bees and brood. If you see mites on bees its time to do something about mites. It’s a little late but better now than never. For every phoretic (mite outside of a brood cell) mite that can be seen on bees there are probably dozens reproducing under the cappings of pupa.
A better visual indicator is drone brood. When you separate the brood chamber boxes there is often drone brood that will be torn apart. That is a good opportunity to visually check for mites. Or take a cappings scratcher and fork into a patch of drone brood and lift them out of their cells. Check for mites. (Not for the squeamish, by the way.) Again, if there are mites in drone brood, deal with them.
Take a quart jar (narrow or wide mouth). Get a jar ring. Cut out a circle of eighth inch mesh screen (not all hardware stores carry this in small quantities). Open hive. Find queen (preferably) and set that frame aside. From other brood frames shake a quantity of bees into a dishpan. Pour bees into the quart jar—about an inch. Dump in about a tablespoon (or more if there is high humidity) of powdered sugar on top of bees in jar. Screw jar ring with screen circle onto jar. Shake well in all directions with your hand across the mouth (jar mouth, that is). Let jar set for a few minutes. Shake the jar vigorously like a salt shaker over a white, clean surface (a hive lid works well). Count mites. Dump sugar coated bees back in hive. (They’ll recover just fine.)
The number of bees in the sample was about 300. So divide the number of mites that you counted by 3 and you will have a reasonable idea of your mite load. If more than three, treat. However, remember, that the only good mite is a dead mite and the more mites you have earlier in the season, the more important it is to do something—immediately.
This is a much more accurate detection method, but with the obvious downside of killing the bees in the process. Again, a quart jar but with a normal solid lid, not the jar ring and screen. Sample bees the same as a sugar roll. Pour enough isopropyl alcohol in to immerse all bees well. Screw lid on and shake well. Pour alcohol through a sieve with screen large enough to let mites through into a catch container. Repeat the wash process with the same sampling of bees two or three times. Count the mites in the bottom of the container. Again, treat if the number of mites is above threshold.
As a visual detection tool, maybe, but not recommended for useful accuracy. Sticky boards are useful to determine the efficacy of a treatment. More on that in a later post.
Keep those bees. Find (and kill) those mites.
