Diagnosis of diseases

Varroa EasyCheck and 3-in-1 Varroa Tester, CO₂ gun, and field kits for American and European foulbrood. From €12.50 to €55.

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Varroa Easycheck

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13 reviews

Receive it between 10 Nov and 12 Nov

Varroa Tester

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32 reviews

Receive it between 10 Nov and 12 Nov

Varroa Tester 3 in 1 ApiTek®

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2 reviews

Receive it between 10 Nov and 12 Nov

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Joshua Ivars
Joshua Ivars
With over 15 years of experience in beekeeping, Joshua collaborates with the national beekeeping congress as part of the scientific committee in the area of innovation and sustainability.

My advice for making a mite count useful

A mite count without context tells you little. I would always record the hive, date and method alongside it; for a bee sample, I would also note its size, and for a bottom-board count, the observation period. I would not combine these measurements into one series as though they were equivalent: daily mite drop and a percentage measured on adult bees answer different questions.

Nor would I assume I knew the apiary’s status after sampling just one colony that looked strong. Véto-pharma’s integrated management guide shows that infestation can vary greatly between colonies in the same apiary. My advice is to keep results for each hive and repeat a comparable procedure: this helps identify colonies that stand out and gives the veterinarian useful information, rather than just a reassuring average.

Bee disease diagnosis: varroa counters and foulbrood kits

Diagnosis of diseases

Twelve and a half euros to stop treating blind. Proportionally, it is the purchase that improves the most decisions in the whole apiary.

The varroa count

The EasyCheck (€17.99) and the 3-in-1 Varroa Tester (€12.50) do the same thing: separate the mites from a sample of about 300 bees so you can count. With alcohol, with icing sugar or with CO₂ (€16.95 for the gun), which has the advantage of not killing the sample — the bees go back to the hive.

That number is what tells you whether to treat and, repeated afterwards, whether the treatment worked. A treatment with no follow-up count is not finished: you may be writing off a resistance failure as solved.

Foulbrood: reading the result properly

The field kits (€12.90-13.90) are indicative. They serve to confirm a suspicion on the spot, not to close a diagnosis or to rule anything out. A negative alongside clear symptoms is not an all-clear.

And the important part: American and European foulbrood are notifiable diseases. Faced with a positive, or with brood that smells, sunken perforated cappings or ropy larvae, the correct step is to notify the official veterinary services. You do not treat it on your own and you do not move material out of the apiary.

The rest of the health front is in bee health; authorised treatments in varroa medicines.