Either an ether roll or a sugar shake will work equally well: http://www.coloss.org/beebook/II/varroa/4/2/3/1/2/1 Powdered sugar http://www.coloss.org/beebook/II/varroa/4/2/3/1/2/2 Ether roll http://www.coloss.org/beebook/II/varroa/4/2/3/1/2/4 Assessing the efficiency of dislodging method The differences in the number of mites "found" by each approach is only a concern to beekeepers who still believe in the fallacy of a "threshold". A single measurement of a hive's varroa population lacks context, and has no meaning at all, as it should be clear that not all colonies have equal bee populations or broodnest sizes. If one takes two or more measurements, they can be compared, to tell the beekeeper which hives have significant increases and which hives have insignificant increases. A hive where the varroa population has started to "go exponential" needs treatment. One with only a small (linear) increase over the last measurement needs no treatment. But even the simple principals above are "too much" for many beekeepers, so they treat everything on a schedule that is driven by their own activities, rather than the population dynamics of the bees and the varroa. Or, they don't monitor, they don't treat, and their hives become dying public nuisances in fall, when bees from healthy (treated) colonies rob them out, and re-infest their own hives in the process. And so we have resistant mites, and nearly 30 years later, we still have the same level of problem. *********************************************** The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html