This trapping frame method is of particular interest to beekeepers who do not want to use chemicals or miticides in their colony.
To accomplish this method, an isolator frame must be constructed or purchased to hold one frame on which the queen will live and raise brood for a week.
It is also possible to modify a hive body to isolate the queen using parts of queen excluders and wire mesh. The queen, unable to leave either the trapping frame or the isolation unit of the hive body, stays in contact with the bees of the hive and the nurse bees, with most of the mites migrating toward the isolated brood cells.
As the brood in the rest of the hive hatches, the mites must seek out the trapping frame or isolation unit to complete their life cycle.
They can then be removed from the hive inside the only sealed brood cells left in the hive.
This method in our region must be accomplished in either June or July to allow the population of bees to restock the hive with bees for the winter.
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