>Maybe I'm misunderstanding the methods but the chart shows the natural
mite drop after only 24hrs

Yes, there is great day-to-day variation in stickyboard counts, and for
practical purposes, I typically perform counts on a twice-a-week basis.
But for matched data pairs, better to compare 24-hr drops, and take enough
counts to look for any pattern.  Thus, the chart that I showed was for 48
paired counts.

Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
530 277 4450
ScientificBeekeeping.com


On Sun, Apr 4, 2021 at 5:35 AM Tracey Smith <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:

> Maybe I'm misunderstanding the methods but the chart shows the natural
> mite drop after only 24hrs. It's commonly recommended to check the sticky
> boards after 72 hrs and divide the number of mites by 3. Natural mite drop
> is known to vary quite a bit day-to-day. Rather than concluding sticky
> boards are an unreliable indicator of mite infestation level, a better
> conclusion may be sticky boards are an unreliable indicator when used for
> only 24hrs. I'm not convinced these results would be repeated using an
> interval of 72 hrs but given it's beekeeping, I could be wrong.
>
> For example, from
> http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/food/inspection/bees/varroa-sampling.htm
> :
>
> Boards should be collected after a period of 24, 48 or 72 hours. Three
> days is better than one because the average mite fall of three days is more
> reliable. Divide the duration by a 24 hour period. For example, a mite drop
> of 36 over 72 hours should be divided by 3 therefore 12 mites / 24 hours.
> Record results. New boards should be used for different samples (figure 9).
>
> Tracey Smith
> Alberta, Canada
>
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