IPM board and mite count

[DuaneB]

How do you use an IPM board with grids?  Is it an overall count you look for?  Or a minimum count per grid?  What kind of numbers are good/bad?

Thanks

[Acebird]

My personal opinion is that counts don't mean anything for mite fall.  The only thing that means anything for counts is sampling brood frames.  Which means digging into the brood nest and collecting  bees.  The lines are there to just coddle to people's hopes and desires.
Pick a number any number it won't matter.

[AR Beekeeper]

The total mite fall in a 24 hour period is what you want to know.  Usually the count is done each day for 3 days and then an average 24 hour count is obtained.

Counts that reach the point where the colony is having damage done varies from area to area.  In my location a 24 hour average mite fall of 50 or above calls for the colony to be treated.

You may want to learn how to do an alcohol wash, this is the method now being used by most inspectors, that gives a number per 100 bees.  Either will give an indication of when treatment is necessary.

[Van, Arkansas, USA]

{In my location a 24 average mite fall}

I think my friend AR, meant to say..

In my location a 24 HOUR average mite fall.,.,.

Is that correct AR.  Hop all is well.
Blessings

[AR Beekeeper]

Yes, that is what I intended to say, brain failed to communicate properly with the fingers.

[Van, Arkansas, USA]

Wife wife call (forgetting) a senior moment.  I just noticed I text an error miself, type hop instead of hope.

Hope all is well.
Blessings

[Bush_84]

I?m with ace. The only real measure is to sample from the brood nest. You could have a hive of ankle biters removing varroa and have a big drop on the sticky board. You could have another hive with very little drop but a heavy infestation. Nether give you a good measure of what?s going on. Consensus is that you have to do a mite wash or a powdered sugar roll.

[Acebird]

You can have mite fall from old mites that naturally die.  These mites don't count because they are too old to breed.
I used an IPM board but I never counted mites.  I observed when the fall was greatest.  August, before goldenrod, mites would rain down on the board and then taper off until nothing.  Up here we have a lull in the flow and I think the bees go into a grooming phase while they are building up winter bees.  Then the queen just about shuts down.  If I was a treater I would certainly bombard these hives thinking they would never make it.  Yet they did.

[2Sox]

I never could figure out why people do the mite count thing. Just more to do, IMO.  Common knowledge is that mites are here and make life miserable for the bees and for beekeepers.  I do MAQs on Labor Day weekend and one month later.  I'm going to start oxalic acid vapor for the first time in a week or two. 

Along with winter wrap and treatment, it's the first time all my hives survived a winter.  I had 4 going in and 4 coming out.

[Acebird]

I don't treat but if you are going to treat you should be counting.

[2Sox]

I don't treat but if you are going to treat you should be counting.

I'd be interested in knowing your reasoning - for both.

[Van, Arkansas, USA]

2sox {Along with winter wrap and treatment, it's the first time all my hives survived a winter.  I had 4 going in and 4 coming out.}

Sox:  Great, 100% winter survival, I could shake your hand!!!
Blessings

[2Sox]

2sox {Along with winter wrap and treatment, it's the first time all my hives survived a winter.  I had 4 going in and 4 coming out.}

Sox:  Great, 100% winter survival, I could shake your hand!!!
Blessings

Thanks.  I did "treatment free in the beginning and kept it up for about six years.  Never had a year with more than 25%+ survival.  If I kept it up, my operation would not have survived either.  I started MAQs once a summer.  Things go better but still unsustainable losses.  Started MAQs as I described above and things are looking much better.  I'm adding Oxalic vaporization to the mix this year.  I also invented my own hive wrap that duplicates a greenhouse effect on the exterior of the hive.  I have a winter protocol that I can describe too, for those interested.  All these factors, I believe, added to my success this year.

[Van, Arkansas, USA]

In N. Arkansas we had a colder than usual last winter.  I lost hives, made me sick.  I found bees clustered only inches from capped honey that had bees frozen in their place with many bees dead head into cell. Not enough bees to keep warm in sub zero temps.  Usually in this area we do not experience temps below zero F, last winter was a cold one.
Blessings