Trap Comb
Lexikon
The trapping comb, sometimes also called a comb cage or queen cage, is a tool of biotechnical, that is, chemical-free Varroa control.
The trapping comb, sometimes also called a comb cage or queen cage, is a tool of biotechnical, that is, chemical-free Varroa control. It usually consists of a normal comb enclosed on both sides by a queen excluder, so that the queen is confined to it but can still be cared for by the workers. Because she can lay eggs only on this one comb, her entire egg laying is concentrated there.
Since the Varroa mite reproduces exclusively in capped brood, many mites move specifically into the cells of the trapping comb over the following days. After about nine days the comb is capped throughout and is removed from the colony together with the mites enclosed in it and melted down. The queen then receives a new empty trapping comb, so the process is repeated, usually several times at intervals of about nine days each.
The practical benefit of the trapping comb is that a large part of the mite population is removed from the colony without any medicine, so no residues arise in honey or wax. At the same time, the queen keeps laying continuously throughout the procedure, which keeps the colony stable and makes the queen easy to find for further beekeeping measures.
A common mistake is to change the comb too late, because as soon as the first bees emerge from capped cells of the trapping comb and the mites could get free with them, the effectiveness of the method drops considerably. Finding the queen again at each change also takes practice and time, which is why the trapping comb is better suited to smaller operations.