Allen: Discussing varroa mite drop.

Allen I have few questions. Your answers might help to understand what is going on varroa mite drop.
1. If I understand your e-mails, you did not check your bees for some time and they are full of honey. Are the screens of the bottom boards clean to let the falling mites go through?
2. It is important to know how big is the bee population in the hive. If you don't have enough live bees, I would not expect very many mites left. If you have good bee populations and the mite fall has been variable and it does not give an indication of mite infestation level, this will be a different question.

My questions are based on my mite research and as Randy Oliver replied in previous responses.  Most of the time we find the screen bottom board is clogged with debris from bees, wax, pollen , etc. It will be hard for falling mites to go through. In some cases we have to replace screen bottom boards with clean ones or use pressured water to wash them. Thus we  ensure that these screen bottom boards doing their jobs. The second experience, bees can make so much honey and if mites are high a portion of the bees will die after making the crop and clog up the entrance leaving 1-3" of bees on the top of the screen. Falling mites will have problem going through the clogged screen.

It will be very useful to check these two things out and let us know to understand the problem. By the way we finished checking 40 hives in Edmonton region, Alberta Canada. Each hive still has 2-6 frames  of capped brood at this time of the year.

Thanks Medhat


Dr. Medhat Nasr
Alberta Provincial Apiculturist
Pest Surveillance Branch
Agriculture Research Division
Agriculture and Rural Development
17507 Fort Road NW
Edmonton, AB T5Y 6H3 Canada
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