James Fisher asked:
> How did you count the mites left on the bees after the dusting?

Hi James and Everyone,

Thanks James for the idea of the varroa blaster. I used 7 double story hives
and two five frame nucs to test the sugar dusting. The double story hives
were on screened bottom boards. The nucs were not. Trays were placed under
the
hives with screened bottoms. Frames from the nucs were removed and dusted in
a super over a tray.

After the initial treatment hundreds of mites per hive were counted on the
trays. The
second treatment resulted in tens of mites per hive. Subsequent treatments
resulted
in ten to less than ten mites per treatment.

It was interesting to note that the nucs had the same mite drop after the
two treatments as did the much larger colonies.

These numbers were consistent with the research conducted on the effects of
screened bottom boards published in the American Bee Journal. It indicated
an influx of 10 to 14 mites per day in apistan treated control colonies.

Two weeks after the last treatment when most of the brood sealed before the
first treatment had hatched, I treated the hives again. The hives that had
the highest initial mite drops in the hundreds, again had mite drops
approaching 100. Bees of open mated SMR stock had a mite drop approaching 30
and the Russians were dropping less than 10 mites per hive.

At low mite infestation rates I have not had good results with either the
ether roll or the sugar roll tests. This probably has more to do with the
sampling techniques and the resuling extrapolation rather than the actual
effects of the sugar or the ether on the sample. I helped my wife through a
statistics course several years back which almost resulted in a divorce so
now I am always open to statistical rebuttal :>)

On another note, a quart Gatoraid bottle with a double layer of nylon
between the cap and the bottle makes the best blaster yet. It is stiff
enough to rebound easily when squeezed.

With your experience in dusting can the mites dislodged with the powdered
sugar reattach themselfs to the bees before dying? My observations on the
trays after dusting the hives indicates that all the mites were dead a day
later after dusting. Numerious dead mites were observed on the solid bottom
boards of nucs dusted while even the powdered sugar had been cleaned up. I
guess I will have to put some mites dropped the next time I dust in a jar
with some bees and see what happens.

Best Wishes
Dennis Murrell