Charles and all that want to collect live mites easily. I have been sampling with powdered sugar for years. My method is fast and easy, maybe a bit less accurate than alcohol but that has not been my experience. 

 First, a measured 2 TBS of DRY powder sugar in a regular mouth canning jar with 1/8 hardware cloth lid. Dump in a measured 1/2 cup bees. Important that the frame not have a lot of wet honey if you thump them off into a tub as I do. Wet honey or bees will gum up the works and make for a poor test. Gently roll the jar 4 or 5 revolutions to coat the bees with powder. Do not violently shake, this will cause the bees to regurgitate and again gum up the works. Invert the jar onto a collecting jar. I use wide mouth pints , makes a nice fit. Set aside in shade and go about your business. Takes less than a minute, be gentle. The mobility of the bees in the sampling jar as they crawl around and climb the sides will effectively dislodge the mites and they fall into the collecting jar with the sugar. I generally leave the shaded jar for 15 minutes or so but longer does not seem to be a problem. Dump the bees back into the hive with little or no mortality (more than once, among thousands, I've seen a queen). The collecting jar should still have a fair amount of still dry sugar and the mites seem to crawl to the top for quick and easy count. I generally take the collecting jars home for careful count latter.

Efficacy of this test. In years past I have taken the completed sugar roll and rather than dump the bees back put them in alcohol for a conventional wash and not found more than 1 or 2 mites more. Usually none. I encourage others to see if this is true. It is essential that the powdered sugar is and stays dry, might not be as effective in a humid place, not a problem here. Some other fine powder may be even better, what do you all think?

Mite mobility. True mites can and do move fast. Especially on a frame or in the presence of any bees but if on a cardboard sheet in the sugar they came in they will run around a bit for a second roll onto their back and wait, presumably for a passing bee. If undisturbed they seem to stay that way for a long time, days. On their back, feet up. I have not tried to transfer them to a slide but don't know why that would be different. At room temperature and ambient light I regularly see them live for several days. Controlled conditions would of course be much better. 

Love the indication that the mites feeding on THE FAT BODY of the bees will give a fatal dose. I can imagine effective bait or feed, at least in my dreams.

Paul Hosticka
Dayton WA

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html