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Varroa EasyCheck
€ 27,99
The Easy varroatester is a simple way to count mites in a hive. The Easy Check can be used in two ways. The simplest and bee-friendly method is with powdered sugar. The other way is with alcohol. How does the varroatester work and how do you calculate the number of mites in the hive? Shake about 200 bees into the lid of the tester. This is about 25 grams or half a tea cup. Then mix in powdered sugar and shake the cup upside down. Do this for about 1 to 2 minutes. Now turn the cup over and keep shaking. The mites and powdered sugar will now fall to the bottom of the cup. The bees can go back into the hive and the powdered sugar can be shaken onto the lid of a honey bucket. Using a layer of water, you can easily start counting the mites. The other method works by using alcohol and shaking carefully to prevent the alcohol from possibly leaking slightly at the lid. That alcohol causes the mites to detach from the bees. These will fall through the mesh into the other compartment of the varroatester.
Continue reading below on how to count mites.
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With either method, mites can now be easily counted. The fastest way to calculate the infection rate in the hive is to divide number of mites by the number of bees. So 10 mites out of 200 bees 10/200= 0.05 so 5% varroa mite infection in the population. From 5% handling is recommended. This calculation can also be used for the powdered sugar method. Scroll further down for a step-by-step guide and the calculation to determine the total number of varromites in the population.
Roadmap varroatester
- Collect half a tea cup of bees from a hive (25 grams) this is up to the red line on the varroatester
- Add powdered sugar or alcohol
- Shake the bees gently
- Count the mites and divide this number by 200, giving the percentage. Example: 10 mites / 200 bees = 0.05 = 5% varroa infection. Do you have an infection 5% Then you treat the hive.
You can also now calculate how many absolute mites are in the hive. You do this by multiplying the estimated number of bees (A) by the number of mites (B) and dividing by the number of bees collected (200)(C). Example: number of mites in hive = (AxB)/C. These represent about 20% of the bees in the hive. You do this number times 5 to determine the total number of mites in the hive.