VTBeeHannah · Vermont, US · Pests & Disease · Jun 23, 2026

Sugar roll says 2, alcohol wash says 6 per 300 — which number do I make decisions with?

Second year, three hives in Vermont. I did mite checks on all three this weekend and on my strongest colony I ran both methods back to back out of curiosity, separate half-cup samples from the same brood box. Sugar roll: 2 mites. Alcohol wash on the second sample: 6 mites. That's the difference between 'fine, recheck in a month' and 'start planning treatment' by every chart I've seen. I know the sugar roll is supposed to undercount a bit but I didn't expect 3x. Was my roll technique just bad (I shook for maybe 45 seconds, it was a humid morning), or is this normal spread? Hate killing bees but I hate guessing more. Which number do you all actually trust for treatment decisions?

#varroa#alcohol-wash#sugar-roll#mite-count

▲ 18 votes 💬 3 replies ✅ Solved

3 replies

muglabalci · Jun 23, 2026 · ✅ Accepted answer

Trust the wash. Alcohol recovers close to all the mites in the sample; sugar roll commonly misses 10-30% even with good technique, and humidity makes it worse — damp sugar clumps and mites stay stuck to the bees. Your 45 seconds was probably also too gentle, you want a hard 2 minutes plus a rest and second shake. 6 per 300 is 2% in June with brood everywhere. I would treat within the next couple of weeks, not wait for the chart to say emergency.

NalediBees · Jun 23, 2026

Same logic here even though I'm in the opposite season — winter in Mpumalanga, so my checks are done and the broodless treatments went on weeks ago. One thing to add: when two methods disagree, the higher count is almost always closer to truth. Methods lose mites, they don't invent them.

VTBeeHannah · Jun 24, 2026

'Methods lose mites, they don't invent them' is going in my notebook forever. Ordered Formic Pro for all three, the other two washed at 3 and 4 so nobody's actually clean. Thanks both.

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