"Second question, any tips on making it easier to count the mites in the oil?"
As you will doubtless have read on chrissladesbeblog, I'm doing a count of dropped mites every couple of days on a nearby hive following oxalic acid treatment.. The board isn't oily but it seems to work ok.. Following Jeff Pettis' recommendation there is a 2" gap between mesh floor and the board to prevent living mites from getting back upstairs..
The board has lines drawn on it, dividing it roughly into 4" squares. I have found a magnifying glass to be essential as so much hive debris, eg blobs of propolis can look superficially like mites.
Chris
***********************************************
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