>A small jar of bees as representative of the whole population makes me
nervous.

I believe that one should only be nervous if the counts are consistently too low for the season or colony condition and are out of line with experience. The sample can error on the low side and give false confidence but a high count above your threshold will give an unmistakable warning that action is called for. To be safe I would sample regularly and watch the trend, especially during the late season mite explosion and re-infestation period. A one stop sample, alcohol wash or sugar roll, has inherent advantage as far as time goes and I believe that dependable information can be gained. It would have been equally reveling to do a before and after sample to measure treatment efficacy with a consistent 300 bee sample IMHO.

Paul Hosticka
Dayton WA

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