Regarding the patterns on the boards at
> http://www.greatlakesipm.com/instrvb.pdf
and
http://www.brushymountainbeefarm.com/10-Frame-Corrugated-Sheet/productinfo/278S/
and maybe more, I see they do not seem to have patterns out to the edges 
of the bottom board.

I did a quick calculation and see that any drop board which does not 
count the outer one inch area around the periphery of the bottom board 
is _ignoring 25% of the board area_.

I suppose that some screens are smaller than the hive and the drop area 
does not always extend to the edge, but I see mites out to the edges. 
If they are in a shadow area, I assume they moved a bit after dropping 
and before being chilled or stuck in the Vaseline.

So, since I am counting boards today and my boards are the size of the 
inside of the hive (even though there are shadows from wood parts above 
I assume that all the mites that hit the screen floor eventually fall 
through due to bee movement on the screen), I decided to count just the 
outside 1" and then the whole board.

On the board I just did, I got 24 mites in that outer area and 110 on 
the entire board, so it seems that, in this case at least, 25% of the 
mites were on that 25% of the board.

What are people counting?  Are the researchers ignoring the outer 1"?

Do the commercial drop boards have patterns that extend to the outer 
edges of the floor?  I have not seen all (any actually) of the patterned 
boards on the market, so I don't know.

I ask those of you who have the commercial boards, what do you see and 
how do you deal with the areas outside the patterns?

I also wonder what people have found the best coating for the boards and 
the easiest way to apply it, and to remove the mites after each use.

I have been experimenting with an air nozzle, using my 120 lb/in2 air 
compressor and it seems to be a solution that does not involve scraping 
off the goo every time.

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