At 03:41 PM 2/26/2000 EST, Beecrofter wrote, concerning the extermination of
fallen mites:

>Would a pan of mineral oil beneath the 8 mesh screen accomplish this?

Mineral oil would surely would kill the mites, but oily mites still have to
be counted, and the oil filtered to remove detritus.  What I had in mind is
more like a bug zapper to turn each mite into dust, and count the zaps, i.e.
mites.  This would be quite simple to do.

The idea of counting mites is less than attractive to those of us already
needing reading glasses.  The sugar roll technique developed at the
University of Nebraska sounds great, but for that test I intend to try to
weigh the bees in and the mites out, and take the mite-to-bee weight ratio
as my measure.  Which of us doing inventory would count our frame wedge
nails, and they're larger than mites.  Life is too short to emulate "The
Count" in the Dr. Seuss story.

Bill Morong