And Now for Something Simple

Have you ever reached into the small gap under the hive to try to pull out your sticky board and found that it's stuck in there?

I have.

I tried using the hive tool to catch it and pull it out but that didn't work.

I tried using scissors and all they did was push slashing cuts into the plastic board.

Check out the mite counts on the board pictured above. This is during a treatment so the mites are dropping. But there were tons of them.

2010 was a great honey year but the mites got a foot hold (literally) on the bees this summer too.

I use the corrugated plastic boards as sticky boards and I coat them with Crisco shortening to make them sticky.

Finally, after using pliers like tweezers I was able to get my sticky board out. That brought me to my simple solution: Poke a small hole in the board and run a cord through it. Tie the cord in a loop. Viola - a pull string.

And it works like a charm.