When I worked at the Dyce Bee Lab this paper came out of there:

Abstract – We collected mites on boards coated with Vaseline; then, Vaseline, mites and debris were removed and solvent processed. Our method lets us obtain an accurate estimate of the number of mites in 20–30 min, regardless of the number present, and is useful when the number of mites on a board > 4,500. Our method also avoids the loss of precision that occurs with sub-sampling.

Calderone, Nicholas W., and Sisi Lin. "Rapid determination of the numbers of Varroa destructor, a parasitic mite of the honey bee, Apis mellifera, on sticky-board collection devices." Apidologie 34.1 (2003): 11-17.

We never used this technique, though. Generally, sticky board counting was done by students (slaves). Most of the time we did alcohol washes. 

PLB

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