Standard check of free fall of mites with the use of sticky board.in experimental hive 12 of August

August 12, 2019

We continue monitoring of the mite population in our families - in experimental hive and control hives. The results inspire hope.

As always, we carried out standard checks of free fall of mites with the use of sticky board. Weather was cold enough - in the morning - about + 7С, then during  the day time, it warmed up to + 20С. The bees flew well, and carried yellow pollen.

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The results are :

experimental hive

 8-1

 5-1

 5-2

The difficulty in controlling of mites population in our case, is that with a low initial mites population, its growth is minimal and it is difficult to determine it reliably. As can be seen from the graph (Economic Threshold for Varroa on the Canadian Prairies by Dr. Rob Currie, University of Manitoba, Dept. of Entomology, Winnipeg Manitoba, R3T 2N2 Updated May26, 2008), it is almost smooth if you start to control the mites population, with minimal initial quantity. But, this is a matter of scale ...

So, from mid-May till mid-August our experimental hive show good results of averaged free fall of mites per day...  

The quantity become less !!!!  and not higher, as it is shown on the previous graph !!!