# powdered sugar treatment, how-to-do



## Sully1882 (Jul 18, 2011)

Can someone step me through a simple step by step instruction on how to do a powdered sugar treatment? Do you just take a handfull of powdered sugar and sprinkle it across the top of the open hive or what? When is the best time to perform? How often? What if you have a oil trap in the bottom? thanks in advance!

Sully


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## Sully1882 (Jul 18, 2011)

I'm wanting to do this as a preventative measure for mites.


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## KQ6AR (May 13, 2008)

Hi,
We use powdered sugar dusting to check our mite count. If you have a metal screened kitchen colander it works great. 
Install you're white board.
For 2 deep brood boxes use 2 cups of powdered sugar in the colander, shake over the top of the frames, then brush the sugar left on top of the frames into the hive.
Remove the white board after 10-15 minutes, to get something similar to a 24 hour mite count.


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## Rube63 (Jun 28, 2010)

Is the dusting for a treatment or just to get a count? Please expand on the count then what.


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## festus (Jul 27, 2010)

the powdered sugar helps knock off the mite from the bee, its another alternative to mite control, ive also heard that the bees clean each other of the sugar and that also helps remove the mite, bottom boards are best so the mite falls thru, im not sure but i think you do it like 3 times in a week.
ive always used a kitchen screen. im starting to think this is the way to go with package bees shortly after installing them because there are no mites under cappings.


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## Katharina (May 2, 2011)

You may want to watch the recorded webinar about mites by the North Carolina State University. It seems that powder dusting is not a good method at all. The best to start off is screened bottom boards and drone comb removal. 
http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/entomology/apiculture/webinars.html
I like to use Hopguard in addition to the two above, but used in a different manner with weekly treatments for 3 weeks in a row.


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## FlowerPlanter (Aug 3, 2011)

Everything you want to know about powered sugar.

http://scientificbeekeeping.com/pow...weet-and-safe-but-does-it-really-work-part-1/
http://scientificbeekeeping.com/pow...weet-and-safe-but-does-it-really-work-part-2/
http://scientificbeekeeping.com/pow...weet-and-safe-but-does-it-really-work-part-3/


*Does anyone know where to get one of these in the US?*
http://www.scientificbeekeeping.com/images/stories/varroa/psugar3-5.jpg


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## KQ6AR (May 13, 2008)

Powdered sugar will work if you have a mite problem, but you have to do it a couple times per week, for a few weeks.
Its more trouble than most people want to deal with, that said its the only method I've used when my counts are high the last three years.
Its been working well for us. We also remove drone brood if its infested, otherwise I leave it in the hive.


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## 2rubes (Apr 28, 2005)

I have a video of dusting with powdered sugar here http://countryrubes.com/homepage1.html, scroll about half way down. We only use powdered sugar and drone brood management for mites for 6 years now.


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## KQ6AR (May 13, 2008)

Hi Rubes,
Funny seeing you're post, my wife Sylvia emailed you earlier today.
I'm looking forward to hearing you speak on IPM next month. Hope all's going well in the hills.


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## 2rubes (Apr 28, 2005)

What a small world. I just wrote to Slyvia to confirm speaking at your club in May. I'm also speaking at Alameda and San Francisco the same week.
So glad to see you are using powdered sugar. We just dusted our bees before this last storm and they are doing great. We do it once a month over the winter, just to knock down phoretic mites. Out of 4 hives, just one has a higher mite load. I'll dust that one two more times, a week apart. I'll test them again in March.
Our queens are laying and all hives have areas of capped brood already, all this warm weather. 
See you in May!
Janet


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## tecrench (Jan 24, 2011)

FlowerPlanter said:


> *Does anyone know where to get one of these in the US?*
> http://www.scientificbeekeeping.com/images/stories/varroa/psugar3-5.jpg


http://www.glorybee.com/shop/Bellows-Duster.html
Think I saw them in Kellys also


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## KQ6AR (May 13, 2008)

I tried one a couple years ago, & it didn't work very well.
In my opinion its a waist of money.



tecrench said:


> http://www.glorybee.com/shop/Bellows-Duster.html
> Think I saw them in Kellys also


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## Ravenseye (Apr 2, 2006)

I tried one too and then stopped. Seemed like a better idea than it turned out to be. I still like dropping a screen on top, dumping sugar and brushing it through. It's quick to do during an inspection. Low investment (I made a frame with screen and use a paintbrush or bee brush to work the sugar) too.


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## myfiverings (Apr 29, 2011)

Has anyone tried mixing powdered sugar in a 4:1 mixture with garlic powder. The garlic powder is supposed to kill bacteria and fungi in the hive.


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## KQ6AR (May 13, 2008)

Not all bacteria, & fungi in the hive are bad things. Some are beneficial.


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## Mustang (Jan 10, 2011)

Ravenseye said:


> I still like dropping a screen on top, dumping sugar and brushing it through. It's quick to do during an inspection. Low investment (I made a frame with screen and use a paintbrush or bee brush to work the sugar) too.


This is the best way to dust sugar a moving screen 1 or 2 cup's of sugar and a bee brush and if you hav a oil beetle trap in the bottom it will run then in the oil to.


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## Buzzsaw2012 (Feb 1, 2012)

Ok , does my plan sound solid if I interpreted all the info on this post correctly ?

More info..
New bee keeper , new pkg bees ****** , zone 3 , north central wisconsin
Mostly looking to keep 1-2 hives for yard pollination and hopefully get a gallon or 2 of honey for my personal use a year.
Hoping to not have to buy bees every year, also don't want a disease ridden mess.

1]10 frame langstroth hive , 9 mann lake pf-series small cell and 1 peirco drone frame.
2] positioned on IPM screened bottom board.
3]install pkg bees.
4] 7 days after pkg installation apply powered sugar treatment using screen on top of frames and just gently brush it though.
5] apply powered sugar once a week , same procedure as above.
6]at 4 week intervals remove drone frame and freeze, then reinstall frame to hive for clean out.
7]keep mite count board in place and oiled for further mite removal.

this will not completely remove the mites but will keep the numbers manageable for the bees to survive?
VSH type bees might increase my odds ?

Any other thoughts ?


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## KQ6AR (May 13, 2008)

You won't need to PS the bees that early after installing. We do it once a month with a white board under the hive to see how bad the mite level is. Removing the board in 10-15 minutes.
If I see 50 mites on the board I don't worry about it. If the board has a lot of mites we PS a couple times a week for a few weeks. Its important not to have high mite levels end of July-Fall.
First year package I wouldn't even check for a couple months.

We find it a lot easier to put an empty wood frame, no foundation in the brood nest for drone brood. If the drones are infested we cut it out, & put the empty frame back in the hive. You need to put the foundationless frame between drawn frames in the broodnest, so you wouldn't be doing it in the beginning.


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## Buzzsaw2012 (Feb 1, 2012)

thanks for the info Dan , I appreciate the help !
Lee


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## blainenay (Oct 14, 2011)

What about dusting a new package before installing them in a hive?


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## KQ6AR (May 13, 2008)

You could overheat the package, as they try to clean themselves.
If you feel the need to dust a new package, wait until the queen is excepted in the hive.
Many package suppliers knock the mites off somehow before they ship, I think Pervis uses PS to do it.


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## Beregondo (Jun 21, 2011)

blainenay said:


> What about dusting a new package before installing them in a hive?


In the current issue of Bee Culture magazine (March 2012) on pages 38 & 39 Dann Purvis describes how he avoids overheating while sugar dusting bulk bees.

He has a deep with screen (#8 hardware cloth) on both sides, and sets bricks under the corners to allow ventilation space and prevent overheating. Then he just does his sugar shakes through the screen, pouring the sugar directly form the bag onto the bees.

I'd just put a screen board on each side instead of dedicating a deep box to this, if I had the screen boards already.
If you don't, it's cheaper to do what Dann does than to buy new screen boards.

He does not do this if the temperature is over 90F to avoid overheating.


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## KQ6AR (May 13, 2008)

My other consideration was not wanting his package to abscond before the queen starts laying.
They've been through enough stress already.


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