Hi all
I used sticky boards in a large way doing research experiments at the Dyce Lab. I was not impressed by them. You can have high mite fall with a very large colony, where the per bee average is relatively low. You can get average mite fall with a weak colony when the infestation level is high. You can have very low mite fall from a colony that is collapsing or already collapsed. The only way to effectively use mite drop counts is to couple them with colony strength. And if you are going to go to the trouble of opening the hive and assessing it, might as well take a bee sample and count mites properly.
PLB
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