> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Whats on a sticky board
> Date: Sat, 15 Apr 2000 22:34:33 +0100
>
>Allen Dick writes as follows:
>
>I have not been able to identify many of the translucent and organic
>shaped  things on the floor, and would love to have some input into
what all
>I am looking at.

A hobby beekeeper,  but well trained in scientific method (Retired
physician), I will give this a try although  I have spent only 8 weeks
watching counts every 3 days  on two colonies with 1/8 inch hardware
cloth screened bottoms.  I hope this helps someone, and myself!

To fabricate a sticky board,  I choose to coat a piece of poster
cardboard, like school children use, with a heavy coat  of mineral
oil, both sides
after placing parallel  lines (6) equidistant  with a heavy pencil
(making a crude grid),
length wise;  to make possible counting mites in a smaller area than
the whole board .
I chose to place and leave this setup in for 24 just hours before
counting . (To restrict
junk to read through...uncapping wax particles, pieces of propolis,
wax moth
larvae droppings, webbing, etc, etc.  After all, the only thing we are
interested in is
the varroa  I.D.

What I saw rather quickly:
1.  A foreboding number of Varroa, between 15 and 20 inside of each
set of spaces, dominately in the four middle sets, gave a total drop
of nearly 100 mites in 24 hours.  Info from the archives suggested
that a spontaneous drop of 15  to as many as near 100 was potentially
very serious, but some of this data appeared less than well
documented.

Now,  some observations on the mite appearance:  What I thought to be
immature mites varied in color from very, very light tan, sometimes
almost
translucent, to slightly darker tan;, and I  I shortly recognized that
they
frequently were lying on their backs, legs side up, and this 'ventral'
side
was of concave shape (like a saucer).   Further if touched,  few
moved.
If immature, this  might  be due to their immaturity, they may at this
stage be more
vulnerable to the oil (if indeed the oil kills mites) or immaturity
could simply reduce mobility.

Mature mites,  some of which seemed a bit larger than the cited
1.0-1.1 mm (no
measurement attempted),   also sometimes upside down, and if so, also
appear dead....until  they are touched with a pin or such;  then often
wiggle,
hop or junp,  almost like "panic",  sometimes righting themselves and
moving off
less than an inch or  occasionally a little more.  When right side
down the convex
dorsal surface especially in sunshine was glistening dark brown to
nearly black
and without a 2 times  magnification (ordinary reading glass) one can
scarcely
recognise their toe tips sticking out from under one side of her
shell.   Males are very small (as I understand it) and don't leave the
 cell where he breeds his mature sisters, except by accident;  I could
not identify anything I thought might be a male, not did I expect to.
My
impression was  that about 15-20% of the mature mites were not dead
and
would move  placidly off a short distance.

Other things observed-   two or three  small wax moth larvae only one
alive,
a few balls of wax moth feces, and few very scattered areas where
coarser small piles of wax grains from wax moths chewing....one of the
the colonies which should have had ten frames of bees and 6-7 of brood
consisted of  only  6 frames of beess and equivalent  brood reduction.


This is submitted only to assist identification of stickly board
material, and make
no reference to significant  mite counts, treatment modalities,  or
other
features.  I remind you that this spring I have not yet identified
mites in colonies,
having retreated when  the situation described was found.
I hope others will describe their sticky board contents.  I think at
this point it is quite
simple to do, and some quantitation of the infection appears to me
important.

Regards,

Bob  Barnett
Birmingham, Al   US
34 Deg. N,  87 Deg E.