Topic: 48hr varroa count and Larvae carcass ?

[charentejohn]

Just done a varroa drop onto sticky board check and am quite pleased, am I right to be ?
Background is 3 box high warre unopened for 3 months, last count was about the same but done for one day.  I know a few days more is preferable but the first one I left for 4 days was black with rubbish and hard to count varroa on it.
I am in France and we had a forage slowdown (not really a dearth) but Ivy starting now and noticed this afternoon masses of workers coming and going as well as orienting bees earlier in the day.  Busy busy bees.

So, TF so looking for good numbers and today took off the sticky boards and counted 42 from the swarm that started out largest (so 21/day) and 32 from the smaller but usually more active swarm (so 16/day).
My first year so I have nothing to judge by.  I am happy at 21 and 16/day, also may be that they are removing larvae they don't like ?
They are not hygenic as such but came from a supplier who only treated when they had to based on varroa drop.  So had treatments but minimum needed so as close to TF as I could get here.

I will keep doing tests every couple of weeks to check for variations.  Our remaining season is about another 6-8 weeks as September 1st now, we can get good weather and just occasional cold snaps over winter.

Photo attached is of what I think is a larvae carcass, part of, which could well have been removed ?  Will have been there 2 days.

[charentejohn]

I guess the variable numbers for acceptable varroa count are putting people off offering one.  Also I know TF often means not checking as makes no difference.

Found this site and I think we have a slightly colder winter but rest is similar http://extension.msstate.edu/publications/managing-varroa-mites-honey-bee-colonies   
Leave the sticky board in place for 3 days, and then count the number of dead mites. The daily ?mite drop? is estimated by dividing the total mites by the number of days for the sampling period. The economic thresholds estimated for using this technique vary widely from region to region. However, a reasonably conservative threshold for late summer in Mississippi would be a daily mite drop greater than 40?50 mites per day.

So as it is what I want to hear I will go with it, my 21/day is ok then.  I have seen these as low as 2/day and recommending treatment, seems way off.  Also 100/day before worrying, seems too high.
If mine continue at 20-30/day I won't worry about them, all I was planning was sugar drifting from the top between the bars but not bothering tem sounds better.

Sticky board is my only option as I won't be harvesting bees for testing, this is just my preferred method and should be informative enough for my purposes.
Adding these doesen't disturb the hives so I can do as many as I like.