On Monday, June 23, 2003, at 08:25  PM, Todd wrote:

> If we don't try to arrive at some sort of simple, systematic way of
> interpreting mite counts, then those who bother with bottom screens and
> detector boards are essentially estimating mite levels in terms like "I
> don't see any", "There's some", "Hmmmmm...", and "Oh Sh**..."
>
>

Hi Todd & all

I'm catching up on my Bee-L mail after being in Ireland so some of what
I'm saying may  have been covered.  I have done bi-weekly 24 hr mite
drops with full bottom screens for several years, and only treat when
the count gets to my threshold.  Tibor Szabo suggested  to me that a
count of 40 is a good time to treat.  I used this threshold for a while
but found that often a count of 10-15 today will be above 40 in two
weeks.  I find that through May & June counts remain low (0-2), in some
hives rising to 8-10 through the honey flow(mid July to early August)
then taking off to 30-50 in mid August.  Other hives hold at low
levels(0-2) all season, while still others climb to mid(8-10) levels
and hold there for the remainder of the season.  I still treat at the
40 level but use previous counts as a guide to predict when a given
hive will hit it.  I sometimes do mid-term tests to help catch the
hives that are taking off exponentially.  I don't do spring treatments
of formic acid as recommended here in Ontario.  I do use formic or
apistan in the summer(removing the honey supers) on only the hives
hitting the threshold.  After speaking to one of the presenters at
Niagara in December I now plan to treat only threshold hitting hives
this fall.

Bob Darrell
Caledon Ontario
Canada
80W44N

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