-----Original Message-----
From: Ken Hoare <[log in to unmask]>
Date: 26 February 1999 22:29
Subject: BBKA/MAFF Calculator
 
 
>Ruary states
>
>>Use of the BBC /MAFF calculator shows that a NATURAL mite drop of 200 per<
>>day in March is required before treatment would be needed in September.
If<
>>testing with Bayvarrol or Apistan is used the mite drop could well be
some<
>>360 times larger assuming a 90% efficiency.<
 
>Daily mite fall X 100 = Estimated number of mites in colony. (Rough
>estimation)
>
>So Natural Mite Mortality of 200 per day = 20,000 mites in the colony, a
>severely infested colony probably past the point where any treatment will
>prove useful, and way off the edge of the calculator which only rises to
>5,000.
>
>Ken Hoare
>
I stand corrected ,( mea culpa) I assumed incorrectly that the calculator
worked on the natural mite fall so that the real figure is a natural fall of
2 mites per day in March equivalent to a population of 200 mites in the
colony would require treatment in September.
 
However, what I was trying to state is that if you tested for the presence
in Spring and Autumn (Fall) using an acaricide for 48 hours, and if mites
were found then continuing the treatment for the full period stated by the
manufacturers, you would be using the treatment as the English MAFF
recommend in their paper to which Madeline Pym referred.
 
Ruary Rudd