a Randall Austin snip followed by > my comment.. 
For example, I have a friend who takes samples from
his hives but doesn't process them in the bee yard - he puts them in Ziplock
baggies, takes them home and rinses them at his leisure in his
air-conditioned kitchen while listening to his favorite radio station.

>although we use little sealed containers and not ziplock bags this is exactly how we do it at the Texas A&M BeeLab anytime we are trying to be precise (in science terms accurate and reliable).  Do no kid yourself any of the field methods are at best estimates.. and with some estimators being somewhat better than other but none being really that accurate or reliable. quite typically these hives are treated when necessary

>In the field (ie when I am checking mites in my own hives) I use of fancy Varroa Easy Check containers and these work well and speed the job up somewhat.  As a visual clue 1) I look for varroa poop when inspecting frames and if the little white strings seems to be prevalent then I pull out the Easy Check container. 2) on occasion I survey (pull out) sealed drone brood and if more than half show more than one varroa on a pupae I again pull out the Easy Check container. Unlike the hives above these are not treated although information may be collected to use the resources of these hives for other purposes.

Gene in Central Texas...

 
   

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