OK, checked a number of nucs today with new patches of brood after queens
from cells started laying.  Most nucs had phoretic mites in the 2-4% range.
We opened the oldest capped cells, which would have been the first ones to
be of age for varroa to enter after about a 10-day hiatus without brood of
appropriate age to parasitize.

Most had very few mites in the first cells--maybe one out of 10 or more
cells.

However, the last nuc we checked had a single mite in about every other
cell.

We didn't find a single cell (out of maybe 100 total opened) that contained
more than a single mite, so my observations do not support the hypothesis
that the mites flood into the first cells to be sealed and kill the pupa.
By extension, it did not appear in my limited observations that any mite
control is gained due to mites dying in these first sealed cells.

Randy Oliver

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