# Powdered Sugar for Mite Control



## The Honey House (May 10, 2000)

Bee Culture's July issue has that information.

http://www.beeculture.com/content/current_issue.cfm

Maybe some one with a copy could scan it and send a copy to you.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

Do a search on here on "powdered sugar" and you'll find many discussions.


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## louis1st (Oct 17, 2004)

it's very good method of control...and easy but time consuming.

I recommend it to anybody though


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## 2rubes (Apr 28, 2005)

Hi, please check out our website, www.countryrubes.com 
We have been using powdered sugar since spring with unbelievable sucess. We are organic farmers and have not lost a hive to varroa mites, even after having a few heavily infested hives this spring. 
You must do 3 treatments, 7 to 10 days apart, to capture the mites that are in the capped brood. If you do not have screened bottom boards with removable trays, then put your hives on blocks and put a piece of cardboard or sheet underneath to collect the sugar. Remove after 24 hours since the sugar dries up and the mites just walk on it and the sugar with attract bees during a dearth. We have seen mites jump back on bees from the sugar. 
Our website is about screened boards we developed to facillitate the use of powdered sugar with wide doors to remove trays without scraping the sugar to the bottom. But you can use it with most equipment. The most important thing is, it works. 
On our most infested hive this spring, the mite drop was over 50 a day. We were smoking with tobacco and grapefruit leaves and getting a drop of 100 a day. We thought that was pretty good, although you could tell the bees did not like that smoke. When we tried the powdered sugar, it knocked down over 1400 mites that first time. It was amazing. Now that same hive has under 20 mites a day. We did repeat the treatment beginning of July after the blackberry flow. We plan to do it again the middle of August and possibly once more before going into winter. And the bees like it. When you start sifting the sugar over the bees, they make a curious hum, not the angry buzz when you smoke them.
Please feel free to ask questions.
Janet


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## drobbins (Jun 1, 2005)

Janet

could you elaborate a bit on your method of application?
Are you dusting each frame or just sifting it into the hive??

Dave


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## MichaelW (Jun 1, 2005)

I dusted each box as I was working the hives today. The time it takes is really minimal if your working the hives anyway. I'm thinking about doing this nearly every time I work my hives. I won't get the three time treatment but seems like it will help anyway. Then I'll do an organic acid mite treatment when required. I also threw some dired rubarb leaves in the smoker (contains Oxalic Acid). I don't really think this is a good idea if there is actually enough to kill mites in the smoking leaves I don't want to be breathing it. Just a crazy whim!


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## 2rubes (Apr 28, 2005)

Hi, here is the webpage with us treating our hives. Look at the very bottom of this page. http://www.countryrubes.com/pages/4/index.htm

When we treat, we sift about 2 cups or ½ pound of powdered sugar over the top of the frames of the brood boxes and brush the sugar between the frames. We do not dismantle the hives, nor do we dust each frame. 
Lucky for us, we didnt know that was the procedure. We had such incredible mite falls pouring powdered sugar (we didnt even sift the first time) over 2 to 3 supers of brood, we didnt see the point in doing the extra work. We have cleaned up two very infested hives this way. On those two we did a fourth treatment, and had such few mites, we realized it wasnt necessary, I guess just for our piece of mine.
If you continue looking through the website, you will see the amount of sugar that fell through all those brood supers onto the sticky board. It is amazing.
Looking forward to hearing about your results.
Sincerely,
Janet


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## Dick Allen (Sep 4, 2004)

>(we didnt even sift the first time)
Hi Janet, I have never bothered sifting. Seems to dust ok without the extra work.


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## redhawknc1 (Jun 16, 2005)

Hi Janet, Do I just buy the powdered sugar from the grocers? Dominoes, Dixie Crystals, 10X Powdered Sugar, like my wife has in the pantry? Hmmn, I could use hers!


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## notaclue (Jun 30, 2005)

A friend of mine told me to put the crystal sugar in a blender. I ran it for about 1-2 minutes and it worked great. Especially since I can't afford to pay for shipping for the powdered 'bee' sugar. Just a thought.


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## MichaelW (Jun 1, 2005)

Just buy the powdered sugar from the grocery store. It will save you time in blending.


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## 2rubes (Apr 28, 2005)

I have been buying organic powdered sugar from Mtn. Peoples warehouse at $2 a pound. Its very lumpy so I have to sift. The first powder sugar was off the shelf at the market and it was so fine and powdery, I would not have even thought to sift it. I do know the important thing is the sugar needs to be dry. After we use up this supply of sugar, we will probably go back to powdered sugar from the market, its so much cheaper and I've been working hard to keep it out of the honey supers.
We sell our honey to a spa and health food store. Although I have not fed sugar syrup in years and feel funny now about using any type of sugar, I am getting so many 'kudos' from our customers for not using pesticides. They stated they would even be happy if I used store bought powdered sugar. 'Save the bees' is everyones motto.


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## notaclue (Jun 30, 2005)

I can't find powdered sugar in a store and confectioners sugar has cornstarch in it that I was told is deadly on bees. So, I go with the closest alternative I have. Oh well! Thanks!!!
David


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## 2rubes (Apr 28, 2005)

All of the powdered sugar that I've used has cornstarch, even the organic sugar. I have not had any cases of dysentery. There are several posts where they have discussed this issue and most feel that the cornstarch in powdered sugar is such a small amount that it will not hurt them. Several people are grinding up their sugar into powder, but we have not tried that. 
Just curious, what would be the closest alternative to powdered sugar? I saw an old report where someone was using diatomatous earth, which we sometimes use has a bug killer on beans. I wouldn't want to use that on bees, but we are going to add some to the dirt under the hives while we have the bottom boards removed this summer.


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## MichaelW (Jun 1, 2005)

Journal of Economic Entomology: Vol. 97, No. 2, pp. 171176.
Larval Apis mellifera L. (Hymenoptera: Apidae) Mortality After Topical Application of Antibiotics and Dusts
J. S. Pettis,a J. Kochansky,a and M. F. Feldlaufera

http://www.bioone.org/bioone/?request=get-document&issn=0022-0493&volume=097&issue=02&page=0171 

Found several dry dusts to kill brood when dusting hives. Powdered sugar was NOT found to kill brood. I would use caution trying anything other than powdered sugar and look for dead brood. Thats not to say something else might also work and work better. Give the article a read.

on cornstarch: It just says they used "powdered sugar" and unfortunately doesn't say wether or not it was commerically prepared with corn starch or ground themselves. I'm going with beekeeper observations that the small abount of cornstarch is not enough to be a problem.


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## Dick Allen (Sep 4, 2004)

I use store bought powdered sugar with cornstarch with no ill-effects seen on my bees. Don't sweat the small amount of cornstarch in powdered sugar. Actually flour will work as a dusting agent, too. It doesn't have cornstarch.


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## MichaelW (Jun 1, 2005)

Dick, check out the article above it shows flour killing brood.


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## Bob Russell (Sep 9, 2003)

Starch free powdered sugar(piping sugar) is available and is commonly used by wedding cake makers.Take a look at the photo for details,you should not have to much trouble tracking down starch free if you phone around cake makers or sugar refineries.We use it for making queen candy.

http://tinyurl.com/dtxg8


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## ekrouse (Aug 26, 2004)

Bob,

Would you please post the address for "Magic Fine" (the manufacturer of the starch-free sugar).

-Eric


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## Hillside (Jul 12, 2004)

Bees probably have the ability to seperate the sugars in starch with no ill effect. I doubt there would be a problem feeding powdered sugar that contained starch during the flying season. The following suggests that workers can successfully digest starch.

www.apimondia.org/apiacta/slovenia/en/hrassnigg.pdf


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## Dick Allen (Sep 4, 2004)

Hillside, thanks for the link. 

"...the enzyme amylase found in the hypopharyngeal glands of older workers...."

amylase is more generally referred to as diastase in U.S. beekeeping books. Some books do mention its presence in honey, but state that its function is not understood. Diastase is reportedly destroyed by heat and in the past it was supposedly measured to indicate the amount of heat that honey had been exposed to. 

"Starch is harmful to bees." " Bees cant digest starch." How many times has that been repeated? Well, there are enzymes that do convert starch into sugar and at least one of those enzymes is produced in the hypopharyngeal glands of bees and ends up in their honey. Go figure.


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## Bob Russell (Sep 9, 2003)

ekrouse,
This is a product of New Zealand.The ingredients are sugar.Contains 0.5% Natrolite 554 as a free flow agent.The address is:
Decor Cakes (Wholesale) Ltd.
17A Queen Street,
Otahuhu
Auckland.

This address will only be suitable for those on the list in New Zealand.

I have a suggestion someone on your side of the world may wish to follow up.Lolly factories use virgin sugar to purge their machines.The spent sugar is fine and some is powder.In New Zealand the factories were giving it away until beekeepers found out about it.


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## sc-bee (May 10, 2005)

You stated the sugar dries up. I do not have screened boards yet and would be using cardboard do I coat the cardboard with vegetable oil or use it dry??? Just slide the cardboard on my soild bottom board??? Will oil on cardboard on solid bottom board hurt bees???


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## 2rubes (Apr 28, 2005)

That could work, especially if you take out the cardboard with the sugar within a few hours. Use it dry. You can not use cardboard with oil on top of your bottom board to trap mites without a screen, the bees will eat it after a while. But with the sugar treatment it could work. It would be really important that you get it out of your hives right away. If the mites are not killed by the sugar, they will just crawl out and reinfest your hive.
It would probably work better if you moved your hive onto blocks without the bottom board. That way all of the mites and sugar would be out of the hive and fall on the ground.


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## MichaelW (Jun 1, 2005)

on dusting powdered sugar, MichaelW says: "I'm thinking about doing this nearly every time I work my hives"

Tip: don't do it before you plan on looking for eggs, do it as you close up shop. Otherwise you spend alot of time looking at small grains of powdered sugar in the bottoms of the cells.


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## notaclue (Jun 30, 2005)

I asked Connie at C & H about powdered sugar. She recommended I check out their bakers sugar to see if it might work. Costco, Sam's Club or Walmart Superstores west of the Mississippi may have some.


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## MichaelW (Jun 1, 2005)

From the beltsville study that I posted higher up in the thread, I re-read it and found they used:
"Sugar used was Domino Confectioners'
Sugar (Domino Sugar, NY)."

looked up the product on Domino's website and it contains cornstarch. 

Beltsville could NOT find that the powdered sugar that contains cornstarch killed any brood, or caused brood to be removed. 

Using straight cornstarch would likely give a different result seeing they found, "The addition of Flour, BeePro, talc, and OTC10(terramycin) dusts all resulted in significant mortality" Should be noted that BeePro isn't usually used as a dust.


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## Elizabeth (Jun 27, 2005)

I'm a new beekeeper and will try the powdered sugar since we discovered mites - but I'm in florida and we do not have bottom boards - the hives sit on a raised wooden frame. Would I need to create a sticky bottom board and if so how would I go about that?


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## drobbins (Jun 1, 2005)

Elizabeth,

I think the trick is that you need a way to catch the sugar as it fall out of the bottom of the hive.
otherwise, you get a big ant problem
the other thing is, that by having some kind of board under there, you can look and see how many mites fall out

Dave


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## 2hives (Apr 1, 2004)

Yes, you have to have some way to collect the sugar that drops through the hive. If you don't have a sliding tray below the bottom, you could just put a cloth or plastic sheet below the hive on the ground, after an hour, or so, come back and remove the sheet, discard the sugar/mites. 
I tried the powdered sugar method on one of my hives. I was getting 30 mites on a 24 hour sticky board test. I sifted 2 lbs. of sugar on top of the brood boxes, gently brush all the sugar on top of the frames down between them. Closed up the hive, came back an hour later and most of the sugar was on my sliding tray, with approx. 500 mites. The powdered sugar does knock down a lot of mites. After a couple of days I did another 24 hour test, and still found 30 mites. If this method keeps the 24 hour drop this low, I'll probably keep doing it.


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## 2rubes (Apr 28, 2005)

We just pulled our thistle honey and did a powdered sugar treatment. Since the middle of July, we pulled out our sub-boards on all of our hives except one that was the lowest mite count. It was so hot, I thought I would try to go bottomless. After the first powdered sugar treatment, the hive that had the most mites was the one hive that we left the sub-board in. That was also the hive that had the least honey in it. 
I have the sub-boards greased and back in and tomorrow will be three days, I'll pull and check for mite drops and report tomorrow.
I have to say, I am really amazed at the difference in going bottomless during the hot summer months and will start earlier next summer.


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## David Stewart (Jan 22, 2005)

I just tried the powdered sugar method and was totally shocked at the results. My pre-treatment 24 hr natural drop count was 22 mites. About 20 min after sifting approx 1 cup per box of powdered sugar I decided to sneak a peek and see how it was doing. The resulting 200 mites was an eye opener and a wake up call to this newbee that this mite thingy is serious business. I'm not much on chemical treatments in the hives so I guess I'll keep it up at 7 day intervals for a month or so. I realize the 200 mites doesn't really provide a good indication but since this is a weak hive to begin with, I'll take it as a decent baseline to start from.

David


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## MichaelW (Jun 1, 2005)

Checked my sticky boards on my hives I did powdered sugar on today. One hive I did the intervals right for 4 treatments, and two hives I did 3 treatments with possibly incorrect intervals. I should have marked my calendar. Anyway I still have plenty of mites so I'm glad I already bought some Apilife-VAR. I think it knocked them back some, fewer mites, but still a good number of mites are present. Keeping records is the way to go and I will be starting to do that with the mites I will count tommorow. Using a clipboard stored with my bee gear. Seeing I'm still waiting for a 10 day forcast without 90 degree temperatures to use the Apilife, I'm really glad I did the sugar treatments.

One hive that had very few mites 3 weeks ago which also had a complete break in the brood cycle, has quickly been reinfested with mites. Fewer than the other hives but enough to treat. I didn't do any powdered sugar on this one.


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## Joseph Clemens (Feb 12, 2005)

I would be hesitant to introduce anything that could be considered a contaminant, especially sugar, in any form. I wouldn't be sure none got into the honey. Adulterated honey is a scary thought. It's why I don't feed sugar water, only honey.


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## 2rubes (Apr 28, 2005)

I've been worried about getting sugar into our honey. I haven't fed sugar syrup in the last few years, so I wondered about this method. We've been careful to use the treatments before and after honey flows. We used powdered sugar treatments in early April (when you would typically use some type of mite knock down) and then in July, after the raspberry and blackberry flow, when we typically have a dearth for a few weeks. We just entered our local Nevada County Fair where we won blue ribbons for both our light (raspberry) and med (blackberry) honey. I wondered prior about the judges, since they have rejected any honey with 'honeydew' in the past. 
We have just pulled our thistle honey and have started the first treatment. Today we do the second on all 8 hives. We are still showing mites, but not even close to the numbers we saw in April, maybe a few 100 in the sugar, compared to over 1400 in spring.


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## Ron van Mierlo (Oct 19, 2005)

More sugar considerations:

Investigating finer sugars for use against Varroa, I found widely differing names and qualities, that must also have a significant effect on the treated hives, either positive or negative. 
Some finer sugar names that I found: silk-, powdered-, instant-, icing-, confectioners-, ultra fine-, super fine- and dry fondant sugar. If that was not enough, you will find that (just to pick one of them) under the name of powdered sugar the factories in one and the same country or different countries will supply completely different qualities (the sugar source, the additives used, the minimum and maximum grain sizes, the process by which the sugar was obtained etc.). Since the sugars are many times meant to dissolve quickly, their raised hygroscopic properties might render them unsuitable for our use, since it will quickly become lumpy once its original bag or container has been opened, or as written in the forum before when applied to a hive.
Sugar with mean grain size of 9 microns might be, who knows, too fine and finish up in the breathing organs of our bees. The range of grain sizes within some sugar qualities might not be tight enough for our purpose either.
So out of all that the optimal sugar should first be found, one that will not harm the bees and still rid the hives from Varroa with the highest effect.
The sugar should always be kept at an even temperature (not lower than 10 degrees C.) and at an even relative humidity (40-65% for example) to prevent building of clumps.
Sugar powdering is not per definition aproved by our agricultural departments (or whatever dept. in our individual cases) so we have to work hard and get this approval. 
Any solid boards under the frames should also be powdered in, so that the mites that finish up there just mill around without moving forward, they will then die, lacking the nourishment from their hosts.
I'm trying to collect all the available data on finer sugars in an Excel file and hope to show you some time in the future...as long as the sugar refineries also assists a little. My microscope will possibly assist in the measurements of grains. Please email me if you find a datasheet on a fine sugar.

Ron van Mierlo
Sweden
[email protected]

[ October 21, 2005, 06:36 AM: Message edited by: Ron van Mierlo ]


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## 2rubes (Apr 28, 2005)

Hi Ron, 
We have been using several different types of powdered sugar, first buying an organic type at the health food store. It was expensive and lumpy, and we had to break it up and sift it in order to apply it. After the honey flow was over, we bought a 25 pound bag of C&H (a commerical brand found in stores) and the first few applications were great, then it hardened in the bag and had to be broken up and resifted. Now we are buying powdered sugar, whenever its on sale in 2# plastic bags. That has been perfect, as long as its not open, it stays very soft. 2# does almost 4 hives. We haven't dabbled in any other types of sugar. It is almost impossible to buy powdered sugar here without small amounts of cornstarch in it. I know of beekeepers who are grinding their own granulated sugar with high speed blenders and having good luck with that. I read your article in Bee-L where you are wondering about the long term effects. Some people, like Jim Fischer, has been using it for years, but just several times a year. A few beekeepers are writting that they are using it every week and are keeping their mite population under control without any ill effects. I guess time will tell. We have been using it quite a bit, 3 times about every other month. It does not bother any of the larva and we do not see dead or sick bees (I have been checking for stomach problems). It has been pointed out to me that I am not doing experiments as a scientist, I have no controls and I do not stress all of our hives at the same time. It would be great to get someone to do a long term study on it. 
It appears to make these PS treatments work, you do need to monitor your mites and apply it when the mite loads are elevated. We have let some of our hives mite loads get high (100 mites a day) before we treated. Now we are going to treat when the mite load reaches 50.
You talked about using PS on your bottom boards, do you have screens over your boards? It has become obvious that all of the mites do not die in the powdered sugar, but can revive. To be more effective in mite reduction, you must be able to remove that sugar quickly from the hive. I have carried boards loaded with sugar and mites to our disposale bags, when a bee would land on it. As quick as a wink, there would be 5 or 6 mites on the bee from the sugar.


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## Ron van Mierlo (Oct 19, 2005)

Hello,

Even though I am throwing in my weight to fight for this powdered sugar method, my own hives are still free from Varroa, so I suppose in order to produce some figures from practice I'll have to wait for the investation to occur. All around me beekeepers have had Varroa for some years now, so I'm afraid that it will not take much longer before this happens to us as well.

I have contradicting data on the subject of bottoms and the sugar there. In one article it was stated that a closed bottom in actual fact worked better that the screened one, as long as it was also treated with a layer of fresh powdered sugar. That article even stated that the mites could hold fast on the small bars of the screens and climb up again, while in the sugar layer they would just be milling around while not moving anywhere and soon die. I myself have doubts whether mites would be so incredibly unlucky that they landed exactly on the bars of a screen bottom, but I have no pratical data either and no screen bottoms in my hives either.
But to be on the safe side, I would also advise to remove the bottom board with sugar and mites at the earliest opportunity, because the sugar will have changed under time and attracted a certain amount of moisture. Removal might have to be delayed for half a day to a day to make sure that all the affected mites ahve come down first.
In hives of other beekeepers that started to apply sugar dusting here locally I have seen very lumpy sugar on the bottomboards, so there would any fallen mites have had a good chance to crawl between the lumbs and up into the colony again. I have also seen the quality of the sugar in the bags...not a promising sight I must admit! So we have some learning and teaching ahead of us!
By the way, if you have any product data on the sugars that you have used in PDF/DOC/TXT or whatever, then I would appreciate a copy to supplement my Excel file with.
Ron van Mierlo

[ October 24, 2005, 07:04 AM: Message edited by: Ron van Mierlo ]


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## 2rubes (Apr 28, 2005)

Just curious, are you a scientist working on this project? I do not have any data on powdered sugar, I haven't been concerned with size since American powdered sugar seems pretty standard. 
I am very concerend with people using powdered sugar without screens. Dr. Mussen out here said he captures his mites in powdered sugar for his experiments and they all revive after a while. I have seen tons of 'dead' mites in powdered sugar, but I have also seen live ones, barely moving. Once the sugar hardens just a bit, the mites that land on it move freely and very quickly. If you do use screen boards, make sure there is suffient space between the bottom board and screen so the space doesn't fill with sugar and debris where the mites can walk back up to the hive. These mites can live over 6 days. I wonder about people who leave the bottoms off altogether. During a dearth, bees are attracted to the fallen sugar and if there are live mites, they will reinfest. Also, whats to prevent the mites from walking to the front of the hive, waiting for some bee to land on the ground.
With traditional bottom boards, you do need to get that sugar out quickly, which would mean dismantling your hives to get to it. I think someone makes a scraper that you might be able to use to clean out the fallen sugar and mites. 
We have more information on our website, www.countryrubes.com 
Thanks,
Janet


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## Ron van Mierlo (Oct 19, 2005)

Hi Janet,

Thanks for your input. Yes I know that site and have visited it recently when I was searching for data on the Internet with regard to sugar dusting. 
No, I am not a scientist, just a beekeeper like most of us here. The reason for my activity is the lack of information on the sugars that the beekeepers have used in their own private tests. Their reports usually only mention the name of the sugar, but that does not say anything about the sugars' properties. Even if you use an American sugar, I presume that there are still several sugar refineries in the USA that produce different sugars, even if they are all called "powdered sugar" for example. I hope to show what these individual differences are between the refineries that I can get sugar or product data from and for as far as my simple testing means will allow. Together with the hopefully complete and honest reports from the beekeepers, we should be able to draw some preliminary conclusions that could be put to the test further. I would have nothing against a scientist jumping on this train to help and lead this futher, but just the lack of research is the reason for my efforts now.
Of course the different hives and hive bottom designs will all call for slightly different approaches and leaving bottom boards untouched for days would be dumb for a number of obvious reasons. A sugar's quality is after all only guranteed unopened, so it seems logic that sugar out in the open will loose it's original properties as the hours go by.
How quick the sugar will loose it's useable properties is another factor that depends on just the sugar that you used, since they differ quite a bit in that regard..that's what I have seen by reading the specs from different refineries and which I hope to present later in the Excel file that I referred to in an earlier message.
It's interesting to see your write about the mites reviving after a while, but I would appreciate it if you could elaborate a little on that. What I can't undrstand is the fact the mites are "reviving", but form what are they reviving though? To revive, wouldn't they first have to be exposed to something? Just having lost grip from their hosts is not exposing them, merely depriving from their original food source, the bee. The reports that I read claim the opposite, namely that the mites will die soon after having lost grip of their hosts, so let's dig this out and see if we can get some clearity on this. I'll report here if any articles are found that either support or reject this.
Your own observation whereby some barely moving mites were seen does not give a clear picture either, since those mites might very well have landed there just before you pulled out that board or insert and since you said 'barely' thsi also suggests to me that those were no viable mites anyway and no longer able to crawl or attach themselves to bees.

Regards
Ron van Mierlo


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## 2rubes (Apr 28, 2005)

I am going to take a copy of your letter. I am going to the NW Corner Beekeeping Conference in Oregon this weekend and Eric Mussen will be there. He is our California State Apiarist and was the one who gave me the information on mites living without a host, and also the info on using powdered sugar to collect mites. 
I'll report on this next week,
Thanks,
Janet


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## Ron van Mierlo (Oct 19, 2005)

Yes Janet that sounds like a good idea! Looking forward to the results,

Ron


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## Mabe (Mar 22, 2005)

Howdy Rubes and others,

How late in the season have you had success with the powdered sugar treatments? I tried the method late this summer and found that I have very few mites, but would like to do another go round before closing the hives. I can only open hives here on sunny days now since it's been getting pretty cold. My though is that it might be less of a problem for brood at this time???

Mabe


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