# Tobacco leaf - mite control



## Dick Allen (Sep 4, 2004)

Tobacco smoke was used early on for dropping mites. Here's something (somewhat) related:

http://listserv.albany.edu:8080/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0108B&L=BEE-L&P=R2901&I=-3&X=168BD41C5E3035FF0B&Y=rm.allen%40gci.net


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

Tobacco is a common ingredient in insecticides. I'd be afraid of killing the bees.


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## peggjam (Mar 4, 2005)

The smoke in large doses could kill your bees, but if one only uses a couple of puffs, you'd be ok. Did that for TM last year, don't know wether it did any good or not. It does work very well for spraying on tomatoes to kill blight, and potatoes for potatoe bugs, though.


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## Joel (Mar 3, 2005)

Fresh Tabacco leave aren't necessary. Nicotine is the poison that kills mites and bees. Peggjam is right, it will kill bees as well as mites if you are not careful. The threshold for exposure to kill for mites is less than bees and a little in your smoker can help as part of an overall IPM stratgey. We've seen it knock bees down and they recover but you need to test and get an idea of how much is right. Different tobacco's will have different amounts of nicotine. A nice cavenidsh pipe tobacco cut works well and doesn't fall to the bottom of the smoker through what ever you use as smoker fuel.


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## tecumseh (Apr 26, 2005)

if the detail of my most ancient entomology class is still correct, the LD-50 of nicontanic acid is about 7 times (it requires 1/7 as much to kill half the population) more powerful than ddt.

what do you think that suggest.

sounds like someone must be blowin' smoke.


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

It is the sugar estars along the stem and leaves of the tabacco plant. The sugar estars dehydrate the small insect pests that come in contact with it.

Interesting that he tosses a leaf into the hive, and claims control. Has he done any 24, 48, or week mite drop?


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## Mike Gillmore (Feb 25, 2006)

I don't know if he is checking any mite drops. Sounded to me like he is gauging his success on colonies overwintering and survival rate - 100%. 
I suppose if that continues... in his mind, why bother with counting mites?
I'll ask him at the next meeting.


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## 2rubes (Apr 28, 2005)

Hi, just a note, the year before last, we used dried tobacco leaves and dried grapefruit leaves to smoke our bees. They hated it, you could tell by the very angry buzz. We were getting twice as many mite drops on our very infested hives. If we had 25 mites daily, it went up to 50. We started to use powdered sugar and that dropped over 1000 mites. I haven't used the tobacco since.
By the way, finding untreated tobacco was difficult, but we discovered in a smoke shop, there was a brand that used tobacco leaves in the packaging that was considered second grade and wasn't treated. It was not organic. On smoking tobacco there normally is a second chemical treatment that is used. 
Janet


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## Dave W (Aug 3, 2002)

Mike Gillmore . . .
>Is this a fish tale
Yes. Problem w/ a fish tale is that "some" of the fish or tale MAY be true









Here is a description of SUCKERCIDE (from my notes)

Description - A biochemical insecticide/miticide manufactured from sugar and (tropical [ABJ 7/04, p526]) vegetable oil-derived fatty acids. In early 1990s ARS-USDA discovered that the active ingredient, Sucrose Octanoate Esters, which occurs naturally in leaf hairs of wild tobacco, acted as a natural insecticide.

>gauging his success on colonies overwintering and survival rate . . .
A mite-infested hive often overwinters for 2 or 3 winters (w/mites). Mine lived for almost 4 years. The last year of it "life" was great, I had a record honey harvest, used SUCKERCIDE all though-out that spring/summer/fall, and now I have a dead hive.

Counting mites and good effective treatments are key to long-term success.


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