"Doesn't the disproportionate number of mites in brood vs phoretic
mites during the first rounds of brood rearing give a falsely low mite
level?"

It does make sense to me Adam that this could possibly be the case. In my
area of No. CA, we generally have some brood all winter (I had drones in
two colonies in Dec.) and I start alcohol wash sampling in Jan. and try and
get them each month through late Oct. so I can compare from month to month
and year to year. As a hobbyist, I do however take the time at night to
count my bee sample size to get relatively good percentages for my colonies
(4-8). I sampled my 4 colonies in Jan. and two had 8-9% mite infestation
and the others were 3% with a noticeable weakness between the first and
second two. I treated the higher two with thymol gel and 20 days later they
were at 2-3% even after brood had increased from about 3.5 frames to about
7 frames.
Scott Ball, Livermore, CA

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