# Using a Blacklight to see eggs



## green2btree (Sep 9, 2010)

Interesting question. I have no idea, but it is nice to see someone thinking outside the box. I have a hard time seeing eggs, even with reading glasses now a days, so I will be interested in the answer.

JC


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## Phoebee (Jan 29, 2014)

My wife and I have hit our 60's, and seeing eggs is a challenge. The best thing I've found is a large LED worklight I hang up behind me, so the light comes over my shoulder. The sun would be fine if it would stay at the right angle, but the darned thing won't!

LED flashlights with the really harsh bluish light tend to make young eggs stand out, at least for my eyes, but I'm too uncoordinated to hold and turn a frame in one hand and a flashlight in the other. I've tried holding the flashlight in my mouth but they usually taste terrible. My forehead flashlight is not strong enough. So the big worklight hanging behind me seems to work best. 

This is the one I use: https://www.superbrightleds.com/mor...owered-rechargeable-led-work-light/1296/2991/


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## beepro (Dec 31, 2012)

Wait 4 days and you will see the young larvae floating on the shiny watery Royal Jelly.
Anyways, the eggs are not some radio active glow in the dark green mushrooms, you know.
If only I have a black light to experiment with. Do you think a purple light from the pet store will work?
I just use a small bright LED miner's light to see them. Also, shining a small LED flash light into the cellS while
holding the frame with another hand resting on the hive box will work too.


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## Phoebee (Jan 29, 2014)

beepro said:


> Wait 4 days and you will see the young larvae floating on the shiny watery Royal Jelly.
> Anyways, the eggs are not some radio active glow in the dark green mushrooms, you know.
> If only I have a black light to experiment with. Do you think a purple light from the pet store will work?


The reason UV lights work on certain "biological fluids" (you see them used on CSI shows for urine and semen) is that the UV light causes phosphorus to glow, and those things contain phosphorus. I have no idea if insect eggs are phosphorus rich, but if they are, and the surrounding cell is not, they'll glow. It would be easier to detect in subdued light. Once they are bathed in royal jelly, they probably won't stand out, but since larvae are what they eat, if royal jelly is rich in phosphorus, it will glow, and that would be a good sign as well. I'm going to a group inspection at a friend's place this afternoon, and I'll try to remember to dig out one of my UV lights to try this with.

I found chapter on line regarding royal jelly, which says: "The major minerals are The total ash content of royal jelly is about 1 % of fresh weight or 2 to 3 % of dry weight. The major mineral salts are, in descending order: K, Ca, Na, Zn, Fe, Cu and Mn, with a strong prevalence of potassium (Benfenati et al., 1986)." That comes from http://www.fao.org/docrep/w0076e/w0076e16.htm. They don't list P, but that does not mean it is not present, as life requires adenosine triphosphate for energy transport. It is just a matter of getting enough to glow visibly in an outdoor inspection with a weak UV source. 

The thing about the bluish LED flashlights is that they have a screwy spectrum that changes your contrast perception. That makes some things stand out. For me, they do help distinguish eggs if the light is bright enough and directed down to the bottom of the cell. Another thing that I have found stands out in these blue-white LED lights is crabgrass ... viewing your lawn with one at dusk or at night causes crabgrass to really pop out as much lighter in color.

A self-holding light is essential for me. It is hard to manipulate a frame with one hand, and my wife usually is taking notes of what I see so if I have the light in my mouth I can't talk intelligibly.

Another device I want to try is an LED ring light for my cameras. Sometimes you can make out eggs on a good macro shot that you could not with naked old eyes.


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## jwcarlson (Feb 14, 2014)

RCorl said:


> After reading a thread on How do You See Eggs, I got to thinking. Would eggs glow iridescent under a blacklight? If so, there are small blacklight led flashlights that would light them up like little Christmas lights in each cell. Has anyone tried this? One other thought, though, would bees be irritated by the UV light and attack the flashlight?


I thought the same thing. In the dark it may make a big difference, but with the amount of natural light around when you're typically looking in hives it's like using a flashlight to find your way at high noon. I tried the led blacklight last year because my dad has trouble seeing them (I don't). I wasn't impressed. I might take it out again this year and experiment more with it.


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## RCorl (Mar 24, 2012)

beepro said:


> Anyways, the eggs are not some radio active glow in the dark green mushrooms, you know.


Clearly, unless the bees are foraging on Radiumweed Flowers.  http://www.radiumweed.com.au/

Thank you Phoebee and JW. Just thought I'd ask, before I spent a few $ on a blacklight to see for myself. Let me know if you try one and it works.


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## jwcarlson (Feb 14, 2014)

RCorl said:


> Thank you Phoebee and JW. Just thought I'd ask, before I spent a few $ on a blacklight to see for myself. Let me know if you try one and it works.


I thought it would be awesome because insect parts typically pop under a blacklight. Figured my dad would be able to make them "light up" for him and see them easier. Like I said, I think it is probably mostly because of the other light sources available that it doesn't work.


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## thebeemanuk (Oct 16, 2014)

The easy way is just to use Black foundation the eggs stand out like sore thumbs on there own


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## wildbranch2007 (Dec 3, 2008)

here is what I use when grafting, you can see the eggs and lava and they glow. 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0058ECQ46/ref=cfb_at_prodpg

http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&ke...vptwo=&hvqmt=b&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_10whwtpspo_b


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## Ravenzero (Sep 26, 2012)

Mini LED Flashlights work just as well


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## garfish (Mar 17, 2015)

beepro,
P stands for phosphous, K stands for potassium. It appears as it should work then. Just a little something from all my horticulture days.


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## beepro (Dec 31, 2012)

Welcome to See Source, garfish!

And N stands for nitrogen. Yep, I am a bee gardener too, heee he.


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## Redbug (Feb 8, 2014)

I have had the same kind of questions about the UV world we do not see around us. I have a couple LED UV flashlights and occasionally use them to look at things in the woods at night. Some fungi and other critters glow under UV. It's a whole nother world out there. Did you know that bees, many animals, birds and bats see in UV? 

This is one of the lights I have, go through Amazon for a better price:
http://www.niteize.com/product/INOVA-X5-UV.asp


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## beepro (Dec 31, 2012)

Redbug, since you already gave the light 
why not go do a little simple experiment and see if the bees and the eggs
will glow or not. Let us know if they do so that we don't have to buy another UV light.
At least to put this experiment away for good until they found something that will make the
eggs/larvae glow.


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## Redbug (Feb 8, 2014)

I will take a look one warm night coming up. I also use the black plastic frames in my hives and the eggs show up much better than the light yellow ones. Why do bees go to some flowers and pass other ones up? Maybe the pollen and nectar contents may be the same, but the UV signatures of each may be different. A yellow flower is not a yellow flower to a bee. 

Here are some good starts into the world of UV...
About using UV light, scroll down to the section on simulated UV bee vision:
http://photographyoftheinvisibleworld.blogspot.com/

http://www.vinpro.com/Forensic_Info.shtml
http://uvoil.com/


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## beepro (Dec 31, 2012)

The bees do it for the convenient because they know during a day there
is not much daylight for them to forage on. If they don't take the smartest
route to collect then they will miss the chance that some flowers are short blooming.
They do it to save both time and nutritional value of the flowers. I compare the small
batch of turnip flowers with the Borage patch which is 30x bigger and can provide more
nectar and pollen. They all went to the bigger Borage patch. I wonder what would they do
if it is the reverse of the 2?


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## gjt (Jul 24, 2014)

I use a Bushnell TRKR-225 to see things in the dark corners. It is the brightest light I could find for a reasonable price. It also has red and and "blue" light.


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## Tom06- (May 11, 2013)

gjt said:


> I use a Bushnell TRKR-225 to see things in the dark corners. It is the brightest light I could find for a reasonable price. It also has red and and "blue" light.


I have a black light. I will go out in the evening and take a look.
Should be fun.


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## beepro (Dec 31, 2012)

Yeah, unless you work in the night time before, please wear full
protection. It gets really nasty when they are upset out there.
No hole leave open please or else. Double check, o.k.


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## Tom06- (May 11, 2013)

Too cold last evening. I will have to wait a few days for temp to come up. I will go in evening, not full dark. There is a fence behind the hives putting them in shadow in evening.
I tried the black light on morels a few years ago, no joy there. It would have made easy night time mushroom hunting.


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## beepro (Dec 31, 2012)

What about the oyster or lionmaine?


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## Josiah Garber (May 22, 2013)

RCorl said:


> After reading a thread on How do You See Eggs, I got to thinking. Would eggs glow iridescent under a blacklight? If so, there are small blacklight led flashlights that would light them up like little Christmas lights in each cell. Has anyone tried this? One other thought, though, would bees be irritated by the UV light and attack the flashlight?


I tried it with my uv flashlight and they didn't glow. In fact it was easier to see eggs with my normal LED flashlight.


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## elmer_fud (Apr 21, 2018)

This is a 7 year old thread


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## Josiah Garber (May 22, 2013)

elmer_fud said:


> This is a 7 year old thread


 Now we know it doesn't work.


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