On Monday, June 23, 2003, at 08:25 PM, Todd wrote: > If we don't try to arrive at some sort of simple, systematic way of > interpreting mite counts, then those who bother with bottom screens and > detector boards are essentially estimating mite levels in terms like "I > don't see any", "There's some", "Hmmmmm...", and "Oh Sh**..." > > Hi Todd & all I'm catching up on my Bee-L mail after being in Ireland so some of what I'm saying may have been covered. I have done bi-weekly 24 hr mite drops with full bottom screens for several years, and only treat when the count gets to my threshold. Tibor Szabo suggested to me that a count of 40 is a good time to treat. I used this threshold for a while but found that often a count of 10-15 today will be above 40 in two weeks. I find that through May & June counts remain low (0-2), in some hives rising to 8-10 through the honey flow(mid July to early August) then taking off to 30-50 in mid August. Other hives hold at low levels(0-2) all season, while still others climb to mid(8-10) levels and hold there for the remainder of the season. I still treat at the 40 level but use previous counts as a guide to predict when a given hive will hit it. I sometimes do mid-term tests to help catch the hives that are taking off exponentially. I don't do spring treatments of formic acid as recommended here in Ontario. I do use formic or apistan in the summer(removing the honey supers) on only the hives hitting the threshold. After speaking to one of the presenters at Niagara in December I now plan to treat only threshold hitting hives this fall. Bob Darrell Caledon Ontario Canada 80W44N :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: -- Visit www.honeybeeworld.com/BEE-L for rules, FAQ and other info --- ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::