Icing sugar method - what cloth or mesh?

[JonnyPicklechin]

Hardware cloth recommended by the Americans is not available here, except at high price.

Anyone recommend a suitable alternative mesh or filter?

 

[domino]

Hardware cloth recommended by the Americans is not available here, except at high price.

Anyone recommend a suitable alternative mesh or filter?

Couldn't you use the same mesh from a varroa floor?

It's just to be small enough for varroa to go through but not bees I would have thought?

 

[JonnyPicklechin]

Yep...that'll do it. Thanks for pointing me at the obvious. Cheers.

 

[pargyle]

I use a kilner jar with the solid metal bit of the lid removed and a piece of varroa mesh in place of it.

It will work as an icing sugar shaker if you wish but what I do with it is use it as a 'sugar roll' - Couple of tablespoons of icing sugar in it and half a cupful of bees from the brood frames - give it a gentle shake to coat the bees and any varroa will drop off. Turn it upside down and shake onto a clean sheet of paper and you will see the varroa quite clearly and you can count them. Compare this with the number of bees you have put in there and you have a pretty good idea of varroa levels.

The bees won't be harmed this way but you need to be able to estimate (or count) how many bees in your sample ... I've done alchohol washes which kills the bees so I know what half a cup of bees approximates to ...in my case the plastic pot I use takes about 200 bees when it's half full.

I use one like this:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-K...am-Jar-/221390224258?var=&hash=item338be2bb82