Fig. 1.

Modified hive entrance used to sample incoming and outgoing foragers. The bees entered and exited the hive using a PVC tube that was inserted into the front of the hive (a). The PVC tube had a slit in the middle where a screen could be inserted to separate foragers exiting and entering the hive (b). After sampling, a cork was placed in the tube facing outside to capture incoming foragers (c) and at the end of the tube inserted into the hive entrance (d) to capture outgoing foragers (e). The samples of incoming and outgoing foragers were shaken into jars containing 70 % ethanol to estimate the number of mites entering or leaving hives on foragers