Varroa Mesh Floor

21 99 including vat at 20.

Varroa mesh floor.

The species is a vector for at least five debilitating bee viruses. The solution is simple a woven wire mesh flooring. Pour the mixture of dead bees mites and alcohol onto a 1 8 inch hardware cloth mesh wire screen over a receiving container or pan to filter out the honey bees from the smaller varroa. The list at the top left identifies some of the types by the name of the inventor or proponent of the design.

The varroa mite can reproduce only in a honey bee colony. National hive varroa floor black epoxy steel 8 mesh 2 48mm aperture 0 7mm wire diameter 400mm x 500mm x 4 in stock. Some designs and uses these are a selection of designs of open mesh floors called screened bottom boards in the u s that have been generated by different individuals for ventilation or monitoring varroa mite fall. It is thought that up to 20 of hatching varroa may drop out of the hive this way.

In practice it will be less about 250 square inches allowing for struts and battens. All of my national hives had varroa floor inserts above solid wood floors but these restrict ventilation far more than an open mesh floor. The container or pan should be light coloured or clear so the varroa can be easily seen. Varroa mites are an external parasitic mite that attacks honey bees these attacks cause a disease known as varroatosis.

Floors can be as simple as a sheet of ply with three lengths of softwood to raise the brood box up slightly. Varroa floors can also be fitted with a removable slide below the mesh floor. All well and good. Tbh floor in spring.

Mesh floors are often said to control varroa. An open mesh floor could have a ventilation area of 18 by 18 totalling 324 square inches. The main benefit to a mesh floor is that varroa falling from the frames above drop through the metal mesh and meet a chilly end in the grass below. Inevitably the design of the floor also influences the entrance to the hive.

As the mites fall off their bee hosts they will fall through the mesh. The idea is that mites that accidentally fall from adult bees fall through the screen and become ant food. However open mesh floors are increasingly preferred providing good air circulation and easy varroa monitoring. It attaches to the body of the bee and weakens the bee by sucking fat bodies.

Primarily these are used to count the numbers of varroa mites but i find the other detritus more interesting.