Mite Monitoring: The Alocohol Wash Method
Mite Monitoring is an important part of spring hive management. Typically, strong overwintered colonies come into late spring and early summer with strong overwintered mite loads. It's critical to keep an eye on mite levels and treat accordingly once your colonies are above the recommended threshold, which is 2% (6 mites in a 300 bee sample) in the summer time.
A lot of folks find the idea of an alcohol wash to be overwhelming, complicated, and unnecessary. We firmly believe that it is crucial to have an accurate idea of what's going on in your hives, and the alcohol wash has been proven to be the most accurate mite monitoring method there is. Think of it as taking a blood sample from your colonies, just like your doctor would take from you to monitor your health.
We put together this short instructional video to show how easy an alcohol wash can be, especially if you perform one using our new Easy Check Mite Counter. Watch the video below to learn more.
"Cheery Monday" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Recent Posts
-
There is a Protein in Royal Jelly that Causes Bee Stem Cells to Renew Themselves, So Queen Bees are Bigger and Contain More Cells Than Worker Bees
Inside a hive, all females are the same when they are larval bees. Then, one female is selected as t …7th Mar 2019 -
Microscopic Nanocrystals, the Size of Pollen Grains, Used to Track the Path of Pollen from Flower to Flower
A pollination biologist from Stellenbosch University is using quantum dots to track the fate of indi …5th Mar 2019 -
Earning a Bee’s Wings. In Hives, Graduating to Forager a Requirement for Social Membership it is a Classic Coming-of-Age Story, in Many Ways.
Graduate student Cassondra Vernier conducted lab experiments and observed hours of bee interactions …1st Mar 2019