# Mite control powder sugar.



## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Hijacked


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## Mutti (Sep 7, 2002)

Now they look like Ghost bees!!! We fed powdered sugar this spring but didn't give them all sugar baths....could you enlighten us on this tx??? DEE


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Contact for information.


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Hijacked


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## Stan (Mar 31, 2006)

Ive never hear of dusting with sugar for control ,, to test for mites,, but never for control ,, dont see how that would even be possible


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Contact


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## lacyj (May 14, 2002)

Wouldn't the sugar encourage ants to enter the hive?
We already have ---- ants around...


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## justgojumpit (May 5, 2003)

this thread has been un-hijacked and will be closely monitored. Please, if you want to waste people's time, do it somewhere else! Maybe Beemaster or Beesource encourage this type of thing, but I definitely do not!

On another note, I have personally used powdered sugar in my hives, although I have not monitered mite drop levels. perhaps somebody else could comment on its effectiveness. I have not noticed that powdered sugar would have any effect on the number of ants around, since there is already honey in the hive, and you are not (in theory) putting any sugar outside the hive unless you happen to spill some. A strong colony will not tolerate ants anyway. Other non-chemical methods of mite control are grease patties and the removal and freezing of drone comb.

Allyooper, sorry for the rudeness here.

-justgojumpit


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## beaglady (Oct 7, 2002)

the powdered sugar technique

I tried this last fall in preparation for winter. Prior to doing this, I already had low mite counts, but there were some dislodged mites on the bottom board, which I dumped right away. I don't know as I would use it as my only method of control, but it seems like a valid tool.


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## Iddee (Sep 25, 2005)

Well, I have waited nearly a month to answer this post, in case I could see a different point of view later. I can't. I do not feel my post was sufficiently horrible to be deleted without a warning, a pm condemning it, or any other form of communication. I think if this is the way the thread is to be monitered, I will just back out and view it from a distance. I have tried to be helpful in every way I could, and would like to share 30 years of beekeeping with the newcomers, but not if I am to be treated this way.


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## beaglady (Oct 7, 2002)

Its probably safe to say that most of us don't know what you posted to begin with.


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## Iddee (Sep 25, 2005)

But the moderator does, and he or she is the one I feel should have contacted me either before or after deleting my post.


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## Ol'Reb (Apr 21, 2006)

From the EPA...

We developed a technique to remove Varroa mites (Varroa destructor) from adult honey bees (Apis mellifera) using powdered sugar. Our technique requires isolating a colonyâs adult bee population in a detachable box prior to powdered sugar application. We designed a detachable âbee-boxâ that connects to the colonyâs entrance and is capable of holding the adult bee population. By applying a bee repellent, Bee GoÂ®, to a colony, we forced adult bees into the bee-box where they were subsequently dusted with 225 grams of powdered sugar. Adult honey bee populations treated in this manner dropped 76.7 Â± 3.6% (n = 28) of their mites.

Aliano, N.P. and M.D. Ellis. 2005. A strategy for using powdered sugar to reduce Varroa mite populations in honey bee colonies. J. of Apic. Res. In Press.

We applied measured amounts of powdered sugar directly to honey bee brood combs containing eggs and larvae of known age groups. Twenty four hours later, we compared powdered sugar-treated brood with similarly aged cohorts of immature bees that did not receive powdered sugar. Low and high doses of powdered sugar (.03 and .06 g per 151.5 Â± 1.0 cells, respectively), caused significant egg removal of 62.2 Â± and 86.1 Â± 5.1%, respectively, when compared to eggs that received no powdered sugar. Powdered sugar had no effect on 5-day-old larvae, but it caused a significant percentage of 8-day-old larvae to be removed when applied at the high dose. These results support the value of isolating adult bees from the brood nest for dusting to avoid brood injury.

Aliano. N.P. and M.D. Ellis. 2005. Only large amounts of powdered sugar applied directly to brood cells harms immature honey bees. J. of Apic. Res. 44(1). In Press.


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## dcross (Aug 12, 2005)

Powdered sugar attracting ants? Beehives are loaded with sugar anyway, last I checked


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## justgojumpit (May 5, 2003)

Yes, i deleted some posts here. The starter of the thread asked a question, hoping for a helpful answer, and all she got was a series of jokes, so I did my best to get the thread back on track. I have had problems with hijacked threads in the past, and persistent off-topic deletions are what have kept this thread clear of insanity.

If you want to start a joke threat, by all means go for it! But don't get in the way of somebody's questioning for help.

That's all.

justgojumpit


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## Iddee (Sep 25, 2005)

I beg your pardon, sir, but when someone asks a question and I give a link to a site with 167 threads covering the question, I do not feel it is a joke. Of course you may prefer I post all 167 links. Now THAT is a joke, but I'm not laughing. I think someone engaged fingers before brain was in gear.

Now I guess you can delete this one. too.


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## Hee Haw (Mar 23, 2006)

I have read where other beekeepers use powered sugar,with posative results, they put it in empty baby powder bottles so it can be sprinkled on the bees.


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## Iddee (Sep 25, 2005)

Pour Â½ pound of powdered sugar on the frames of the top super of your hive. It is recommended that you do each super separately, but we do all supers at once. We have not had to treat during a honey flow. Brush the powdered sugar from the tops of the frames to between them. Wait an hour and remove the first accumulations of sugar and mites from the boards. We carry a trash bag and scrape them with a drywall knife (plastic ones at Home Depot for $1.19). Then wait 24 hours and remove more sugar and mites. Re-apply the oil on the board and reinsert, close and lock the door.

On a very infested hive, you will see over 1000 mites the first time you do this. We are treating our hives this way 3 or 4 times this spring, 7 to 10 days apart to try and catch the mites in the capped cells as well as on the bees. As we are still in the experiment stage with powder sugar and on our more infested hives, we might continue to do this until we are only getting a few mites. We are scrapping the sugar into trash bags, as we do not know the consequences of leaving it on the ground. Ants could be a big problem. The mites all seem to die. Most mites are desiccant sensitive and dehydrate easily if covered with powder. If you do not remove the sugar in 24 hours, it will turn into icing and cake up (probably the oil-sugar combination) and the mites will walk over the sugar and not be trapped. Even with the extra large space between the floorboard and screen, there is a change the mites could walk up the walls and get pass the notches and reinfest the bees, not likely, but always a chance. We plan to do this treatment again in mid-August instead of Apistan.


Use 2 cups per hive or 1/2 pound 

Powdered sugar needs to bee bone dry and lump free. 

Sift powder sugar on top of frames of both brood supers at the same time. 

bees attract powdered sugar to themselves. 

Brush powdered sugar between the frames. 

Bees will clean up all of this sugar in a day or so. 

From... WWW.countryrubes.com


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## renee7 (Mar 15, 2003)

Pour Â½ pound of powdered sugar on the frames of the top super of your hive. It is recommended that you do each super separately, but we do all supers at once

Iddee, do you just put the sugar on top of the frames? Or do you also dust it on to the wax?


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## Iddee (Sep 25, 2005)

RENEE7, I don't use the sugar. I copied that from countryrubes.com, as the link I put in the post goes to. There is a load of info there about it.


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