Reviewed notes and corrections
An alcohol wash estimates mites on a sample of adult bees and kills those sampled bees. Keep the queen out of the sample, measure sample size, follow a validated wash procedure and use the same method for comparisons. Report mites per 100 sampled bees. The result is not a direct count of mites under brood cappings or of all mites in the hive.
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VarroaDestructor.com · Reviewed October 14, 2026
