Varroa Board
Lexikon
The varroa board, also called a diagnostic board, varroa insert or floor insert, is the tool beekeepers use to catch the debris falling from the bee colony.
The varroa board, also called a diagnostic board, varroa insert or floor insert, is the tool beekeepers use to catch the debris falling from the bee colony. It is usually a flat, light-colored board made of wood, hardboard or plastic that is slid in from the back or bottom, beneath the colony's screened floor. The screen above it prevents the bees from clearing away the falling material themselves before it can be examined.
How long the board remains in the colony is handled differently in practice: some guides recommend inserting it for a few days, often around three to five, and evaluating it directly afterward, while others insert it regularly over several weeks and read it after just a few days each time, in order to obtain comparable values over the season. In any case, a fixed, documented period is important, so that the counted mite drop can be converted into a daily average at all.
For evaluation, the board is pulled out and searched in good light, often with a magnifying glass, for dead varroa mites and other components. Some beekeepers additionally coat the light-colored surface thinly with oil or grease, so that ants do not carry off the dead mites before they can be counted and thereby distort the result.
A common beginner's mistake is inserting the board irregularly or only once and drawing a final diagnosis from a single look. Because the natural mite drop is influenced by weather, brood activity and disturbances at the colony, repeated measurements over several periods are considerably more informative than a single snapshot.