> I wish we could get them to take this site more seriously. > The bee industry is in need of innovations to dovetail with > recent shortfalls of honeybees for pollination and strong > world demand for pure honey. I challenge our group to > seriously address the problem at hand. Seriously, the accepted gold-standard test is the "24-hour drop test" on an entire hive, traditionally performed using a strip of some sort (Apistan or CheckMite in the USA). Another "gold standard" is the "natural fall" over some consistent period of time (a day, 3 days, whatever). The ether and sugar "rolls" are good "cheap and dirty" screening tools, but cannot be expected to ever be as accurate as a test of an entire hive. False negatives can result from any test of only a small faction of the hive population. A sample collected in a jar by a beekeeper is a non-random sample by definition, given that the bees are collected in a non-random manner. I can't imagine anyone betting the farm on a hit-and-miss methodology like a "roll". And, of course, one must test early and often to have a trendline to be able to make a decision on treatment. Prudent decisions in regard to variable hive populations across large numbers of hives are best made only in response to an upward trend on a graph tracking each "sentinel" hive's varroa drop. I'll say it again: The price of honey is eternal vigilance. Seriously. jim :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: -- Visit www.honeybeeworld.com/BEE-L for rules, FAQ and other info --- ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::