info
Google Groups no longer supports new Usenet posts or subscriptions. Historical content remains viewable.
Dismiss
Powder Sugar Drop for Mite Control, it works!!
40 views
Skip to first unread message
2rubes
May 2, 2005, 8:00:04 AM5/2/05
to
We are getting incredible results using powder sugar this spring on the
varroa mites. Pour 1/2-pound powder sugar on the top frames of your
top super. You do not have to dismantle your hives. Use your bee
brush to work it between the frames. If the sugar is lumpy, shift it
first. Your bees will turn into little ghost bees. Even bees flying
in will pick up the sugar. We have been doing it in the early evenings
when most of the bees are back. We made screen boxes with removable
sub-boards that act as bottom boards (they should be on the market
soon). Any way you can get screens on your hives, to monitor or a trap
mite is important regardless of what method you use. We remove, clean
and replace the boards after one hour and then remove them again after
24 hours. The mite fall is incredible. Example: On our most infested
hive, we were getting a daily mite fall of 50 per 24hours. That is a
hive that is reaching its economic tolerance of mites. If you see bees
with deformed wings, it is also time. We were smoking the bees with
pipe tobacco and dried grapefruit leaves and that doubled the mite drop
and we thought we were doing pretty well. Then we tried the sugar.
Over 1000 mites. I actually counted 1400 after 24 hours, but that
didn't include the massive amount that I didn't even try to count that
came down with the first amount of sugar we threw out.
Most mites are desiccant sensitive and will die immediately, but we
are scrapping our sugar into trash bags. We are not sure what the
effect, along with attract ants, and would be.
Do this at least 3 times, 7 to 10 days apart. On our most
infested hives, we are going to do this a 4th time. On our least
infested hive, we are only seeing a few mites on the board.
Warning, do not leave the boards with the powder sugar in more than
24 hours. The moisture or the oil that was used turns the sugar into
icing, then the mites just walks across it.
Pass it along.
Janet
varroa mites. Pour 1/2-pound powder sugar on the top frames of your
top super. You do not have to dismantle your hives. Use your bee
brush to work it between the frames. If the sugar is lumpy, shift it
first. Your bees will turn into little ghost bees. Even bees flying
in will pick up the sugar. We have been doing it in the early evenings
when most of the bees are back. We made screen boxes with removable
sub-boards that act as bottom boards (they should be on the market
soon). Any way you can get screens on your hives, to monitor or a trap
mite is important regardless of what method you use. We remove, clean
and replace the boards after one hour and then remove them again after
24 hours. The mite fall is incredible. Example: On our most infested
hive, we were getting a daily mite fall of 50 per 24hours. That is a
hive that is reaching its economic tolerance of mites. If you see bees
with deformed wings, it is also time. We were smoking the bees with
pipe tobacco and dried grapefruit leaves and that doubled the mite drop
and we thought we were doing pretty well. Then we tried the sugar.
Over 1000 mites. I actually counted 1400 after 24 hours, but that
didn't include the massive amount that I didn't even try to count that
came down with the first amount of sugar we threw out.
Most mites are desiccant sensitive and will die immediately, but we
are scrapping our sugar into trash bags. We are not sure what the
effect, along with attract ants, and would be.
Do this at least 3 times, 7 to 10 days apart. On our most
infested hives, we are going to do this a 4th time. On our least
infested hive, we are only seeing a few mites on the board.
Warning, do not leave the boards with the powder sugar in more than
24 hours. The moisture or the oil that was used turns the sugar into
icing, then the mites just walks across it.
Pass it along.
Janet
kauhl-meersburg
May 3, 2005, 1:59:57 PM5/3/05
to
hello Janet,
thank you for your contribution and your tests, I can confirm that it
works, spreading powder sugar - I tried it also some time ago and also
with flour, with good results in a test hive, but I stopped it because
the powder transformed into sticky pellets and I I got scared of closing
the trachea -
you encourage me of restarting those tests this summer, please save my
address to be able to exchange further results -
to come to an end, in which form did you introduce the smoke of pipe
tobacco?
encouraging greetings from Lake Constance - Germany
kauhl
thank you for your contribution and your tests, I can confirm that it
works, spreading powder sugar - I tried it also some time ago and also
with flour, with good results in a test hive, but I stopped it because
the powder transformed into sticky pellets and I I got scared of closing
the trachea -
you encourage me of restarting those tests this summer, please save my
address to be able to exchange further results -
to come to an end, in which form did you introduce the smoke of pipe
tobacco?
encouraging greetings from Lake Constance - Germany
kauhl
Oxymel of Squill
May 3, 2005, 3:43:57 PM5/3/05
to
what is powder sugar? Is it icing sugar?
"kauhl-meersburg" <kauh...@t-online.de> wrote in message
news:d58e81$rf7$00$1...@news.t-online.com...
psion
May 3, 2005, 7:12:05 PM5/3/05
to
Yes its icing sugar or confectioners sugar
2rubes
May 17, 2005, 8:34:53 AM5/17/05
to
Would you believe I actually vacationed at Lake Constance as a teen in
the late 60's when I lived in England has an American dependent?
Absolutely beautiful place.
On the pipe tobacco and grapefruite leaves, I bought plain tobacco
with no chemical aditives (not organic, that was another process) at a
smoke shop. We dried the grapefruit leaves after picking them from a
tree. I just put all of the material in our smoker and lit it with a
propane touch. We did double the mite fall from 50 to 100 with the
smoking, but the powder sugar was dropping 1000's. I had read that a
lot of pipe smoke was not good for the bees, and you can hear the noise
they make when you use pipe smoke, they sound very upset. Now when
you pour powdered sugar on them, its almost a curious noise.
We have sugared two of our hives a 4th time since they were still
showing mites. Now those two hives are showing hardly any mite fall,
just in time for raspberry bloom with blackberries right behind it (our
biggest crop). We have been making bottom boards that facilitate the
use of the sugar and mite observation. We have been selling it to our
club members in Northern California. I'll post the ebay site when we
are ready to sell to the public. If you put your hives on blocks an
open the hive to the ground, make sure you place something under the
hive to catch and remove the sugar. Once you use it, the sugar will
harden in a few days and the mites will land on it and live. The sugar
will also attract bees to the area and the mites can reattach to the
bees.
Thanks for your thoughts, Janet
the late 60's when I lived in England has an American dependent?
Absolutely beautiful place.
On the pipe tobacco and grapefruite leaves, I bought plain tobacco
with no chemical aditives (not organic, that was another process) at a
smoke shop. We dried the grapefruit leaves after picking them from a
tree. I just put all of the material in our smoker and lit it with a
propane touch. We did double the mite fall from 50 to 100 with the
smoking, but the powder sugar was dropping 1000's. I had read that a
lot of pipe smoke was not good for the bees, and you can hear the noise
they make when you use pipe smoke, they sound very upset. Now when
you pour powdered sugar on them, its almost a curious noise.
We have sugared two of our hives a 4th time since they were still
showing mites. Now those two hives are showing hardly any mite fall,
just in time for raspberry bloom with blackberries right behind it (our
biggest crop). We have been making bottom boards that facilitate the
use of the sugar and mite observation. We have been selling it to our
club members in Northern California. I'll post the ebay site when we
are ready to sell to the public. If you put your hives on blocks an
open the hive to the ground, make sure you place something under the
hive to catch and remove the sugar. Once you use it, the sugar will
harden in a few days and the mites will land on it and live. The sugar
will also attract bees to the area and the mites can reattach to the
bees.
Thanks for your thoughts, Janet
n0...@yahoo.com
May 20, 2005, 8:50:17 PM5/20/05
to
How does this work? Is it due to the bees eating the sugar and grooming
themselves and/or each other? Or does it have some direct effect on the
mites?
This is a very interesting approach--no chemicals to which the mites
are becoming resistant and so an "organic" method.
themselves and/or each other? Or does it have some direct effect on the
mites?
This is a very interesting approach--no chemicals to which the mites
are becoming resistant and so an "organic" method.
Rick
in the Ozarks
2rubes
May 24, 2005, 11:33:49 PM5/24/05
to
Its both. The powder sugar gets on the sticky pads of the feet of the
mites and causes them to detach. The bees groom themselves and each
other causing further detaching. And the mites are desicant sensitive.
When the sugar is in the powder form, the mites suffocate. You need
to remove the sugar after 24 hours. In two days, the sugar turns to
icing and the mites just walk over it. Our website is just half done
and not corrected, but we have been so busy, I decided to post it
www.countryrubes.com so people can see it better. I'm selling them
currently on ebay until I can get this website going.
We are planning on doing this again in the fall and try to bring them
through winter without any apistand this year. Yeah!
Janet in Grass Valley
Ben
Jun 19, 2005, 4:28:23 PM6/19/05
to
I Have just tried this for the first time, I am in the south of england
(UK) and have 2 hives, last autumn I did not get round to putting the
Bayvarol strips in and have now got quite a bad mite infestation along
with signs of Deformed Wing Virus.
My hives have homebuilt open mesh floors standing over concrete paving
slabs, with legs of 12 inches and a 6-inch skirt to stop drafts.
I put newspaper under the hives and brushed icing sugar over the brood box,
Half an hour later there were well over 100 mites below each hive with
more still dropping.
I replaced the newspaper and will check it tomorow, I have not used any
oil, so many mites may just walk away and become ant food!
I will repeat this next weekend and see how it goes.
NB the weather is dry and sunny at about 80f today.
Ben.
(UK) and have 2 hives, last autumn I did not get round to putting the
Bayvarol strips in and have now got quite a bad mite infestation along
with signs of Deformed Wing Virus.
My hives have homebuilt open mesh floors standing over concrete paving
slabs, with legs of 12 inches and a 6-inch skirt to stop drafts.
I put newspaper under the hives and brushed icing sugar over the brood box,
Half an hour later there were well over 100 mites below each hive with
more still dropping.
I replaced the newspaper and will check it tomorow, I have not used any
oil, so many mites may just walk away and become ant food!
I will repeat this next weekend and see how it goes.
NB the weather is dry and sunny at about 80f today.
Ben.
Ben
Jun 26, 2005, 11:48:55 AM6/26/05
to
Just done the second sugaring, this time I was more thorough and used a
sieve to dust them with so there were no lumps, also I removed the
supers and applied sugar to each box starting with the brood chamber and
working up as I replaced the supers. (Like many UK beekeepers the supers
are spaced differently to the brood combs, I found that if you just
dusted from the top then very little reached the bees in the brood box)
The mite drop was incredible, many thousands of them, it looked as if
there were as many mites as there was sugar on the paper under the hive.
I hope next week the drop will be less!!!.
Ben.
Message has been deleted
Ben
Jun 30, 2005, 2:22:04 PM6/30/05
to
Rez wrote:
>
> I've heard of using cornstarch to kill small pesty insects; IIRC the
> theory is that it clogs their breathing holes. Powdered sugar contains
> about 2% cornstarch. I wonder if the cornstarch being diluted like
> that with the sugar, it's not enough to kill bees (do they go around
> cleaning up the sugar later?) but is sufficient to knock out smaller
> bugglies like mites. (Well, I assume they're smaller. I've never seen
> 'em.)
>
> ~REZ~
>
Not in the UK, all it contains is a small amount of E554 (Sodium
Aluminosilicate) used as an anti-caking agent, the rest is just finely
ground cane sugar. (Tate&Lyle brand)
Ben.
Message has been deleted
0 new messages