SkaneBees · Skåne, SE · Pests & Disease · Aug 15, 2026

Neighbour I mentor "doesn't believe in mite counts" — how do you actually win this argument?

Skåne, 8 years. I've been informally mentoring a neighbour two villages over — second season, two hives, lovely guy, completely allergic to monitoring. His position: "the bees look healthy, counting mites is beekeeper theatre, my grandfather never counted anything." He treats once a year, blind, whenever he remembers. I've explained that varroa damage is invisible until it isn't, that DWV shows up long after the mite load has done its work, and that his October colonies are made of bees being raised RIGHT NOW. Nods politely, changes nothing. I don't even need him to do alcohol washes — I'd settle for a sugar shake, since keeping the 300 bees alive clearly matters to him emotionally. Have any of you actually converted a counting-refuser? What worked — data, fear, doing the first wash for them? Or do I just accept that his deadouts will teach him what I can't?

#mite-monitoring#sugar-shake#mentoring#varroa

▲ 9 votes 💬 4 replies

4 replies

ImkerinLena · Aug 15, 2026

Do the first sugar shake WITH him, on his bees, with his hands doing the shaking. Abstract numbers convert nobody; watching mites appear on a white plate from bees that "look healthy" converts almost everyone. I have done this at least a dozen times over the years with maybe two failures. The grandfather argument dissolves on its own — grandfather kept bees before varroa arrived, which is a fact worth saying gently.

GeorgiaWes · Aug 15, 2026

What ImkerinLena said, and bring the plate. I keep a jar and plate in the truck for exactly this. One neighbor of mine watched 14 mites shake out of his "healthiest hive ever" and became the county's most insufferable monitoring evangelist within a year. The converted are always the loudest.

PasiekaOlek · Aug 16, 2026

The grandfather line is the key. Varroa reached Europe in the late 70s/80s — his grandfather genuinely didn't need to count. It's not that the old ways were wrong, it's that the parasite is new. Framing it that way respects the tradition instead of fighting it, and I've found people drop their guard when you're not calling grandpa a fool.

SkaneBees · Aug 16, 2026

All three points taken — hands-on demo, bring my own kit, and lead with "the mite is newer than your grandfather's beekeeping." Invited myself over for Saturday coffee and a sugar shake. Will report the plate count and whether the conversion takes.

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