Sender: |
|
Date: |
Sat, 2 Jul 2016 08:41:31 -0700 |
Reply-To: |
|
Subject: |
|
MIME-Version: |
1.0 |
Message-ID: |
|
In-Reply-To: |
|
Content-Type: |
text/plain; charset=UTF-8 |
From: |
|
Parts/Attachments: |
|
|
>
> >I think it's important to use standardized materials and methods to do
> any type of varroa sampling.
I prefer queen cage thin black wire screen--far easier to work with than is
1/8" hardware cloth. But hardware cloth will do. As will tulle fabric.
The key point is to avoid shaking the washer up and down, as this results
in roughly 15% of the mites being trapped in the bees during the final
drain down. I've written to Veta to tell them this (I've been testing
their prototypes).
A swirling action works best, although side to side, or slight up and down,
agitation can also work, provided that the action makes *all* the bees
move, and does not lift any washed mites back up into the bees during
agitation.
The above suggestions come from someone who is performing up to 100 washes
a week for the past several weeks.
BTW, I demonstrated alcohol wash and sugar shake to a group last weekend.
Hot day. From a single homogenized sample of bees, the alcohol wash
recovered 26 mites, the sugar shake 9 (in previous comparisons, I typically
see ~70% recovery from the sugar shake, compared to 100% from a proper
alcohol wash). And the sugar shake still left a large proportion of the
bees apparently dead--perhaps due to the heat.
--
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com
***********************************************
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
|
|
|