>The alcohol wash measures the number of mites per 100 bees and the natural
drop measures the number of phoretic mites in the hive.

Thanks for bringing this up Donald--one must account for the number of
frames of bees with stickyboards.  However, natural drop, during
broodrearing, in addition reflects the number of mites emerging from the
brood cells--live, dead, or injured, which may partially explain why the
counts go up and down so much from day to day.  Only during broodless
periods does it truly reflect only the number of phoretic mites.


-- 
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

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