Sugar Treatment For Mites..How Often..?

[Kevin M]

I've ordered some no-cornstarch added sugar from MannLake to treat for mites... How often and when should this treatment be done for best results...?

[Hobie]

I'm new at this and just reiterating what I have read here, but I believe the rule of thumb is 1 cup sugar per deep, and repeat every 5-7 days. I will let those with experience expand on this.

Additional question for 2rubes: I read in another forum that you said smoking the bees first increases the mite drop. I thought I had read the opposite in this forum. Can you please clarify: to smoke or not to smoke?

[sierrabees]

I'm not sure what the rationalle is for the smoking in 2rubes post, but if you use their technique of brushing the sugar between the frames instead of pulling the frames, smoking helps get the bees down and out of the way of the brush. I've been doing this since I saw their post and it seems to work great and really cuts down on the labor.

[rache]

i don't know if this is what kevin meant, but i've wondered: how often should you repeat the three-week treatments? i did one in july, and i was planning another for late september, hopefully to knock down as many as possible before winter.

[Dave W]

>how often should you repeat the three-week treatments?

You should treat w/ powdered sugar for as long as it takes to get your "natural" mite drop below treatment threshold (some say that 30-40 per 24 hrs). If you have treated (w/ anything) and your drop is low, dont treat again UNTIL the drop count indicates a need (higher than threshold).

With powdered sugar you may have to treat every week for more than 3 weeks to get the mite drop down. Then you may have to treat again soon after because the mite drop has increased again.

I know it sound like a broken record, but thats why its so important to monitor your mites often (I suggest weekly this time of year).

[Kevin M]

Well, i'm a little confused, i never heard of smoking and then sugar treatment. Most that i've read here just say sugar treatment and nothing about smoke.
So Dave, you suggest sugar treatment once a week this time of year, how about the rest of the year...? I'd perfer not to use hard or soft medication. If i can keep mite levels down with sugar, FGMO and sucrocide that would be good by me..
Has anyone used these three as a mite control program...? I only started with one hive this past May. Next spring i want to put together two more hives using med.supers throughout and small cell drawn comb as Mike Bush does...it makes sense as far as controling mites and componants being interchangeable..

[Dave W]

Kevin M . . .

>you suggest sugar treatment once a week this time of year . . .

"Time of year" should not be use to determine "when to treat". Treat ONLY when need is indicated by mite count. Once-a-week treatments MAY be necessary to get mite drops BELOW desired level. Once that level has been achieved, then MAYBE once-a-month will keep mites under control, but you gotta COUNT MITES smile.gif

>sugar, FGMO and sucrocide . . .
>Has anyone used these three as a mite control program...?

Using these 3 products at the same time may not produce "mite control". Sugar users say the dont need anything else, FGMO users say the same, and I have used Suckercide and was not favorably impressed.

MrBEE used FGMO as he regressed his first hive(s).

[GaSteve]

In my limited experience, FGMO won't keep mites at bay by itself. It may delay the time until a different treatment is needed. Adding something like thymol to the FGMO might be effective -- I've never tried it. I've found sucrocide to work very well, but it's too much of a pain to apply it effectively. So far I've found the powdered sugar effective enough to not need anything else. It's not as easy to apply as the chemicals, but it's MUCH easier than sucrocide.

I'm puzzled about all the recommendations to treat once a week for 3 to 4 weeks. It seems that if one application kills nearly all phoretic mites, the only mites left are in the sealed brood. Since worker brood is sealed for 12 days, it seems you would want to retreat as many times as possible in the 12 days following the initial treatment. Perhaps on the 5th, 8th, and 12th days.

Any flaws in that logic?

[Cyndi]

I don't like the idea of going into my hives, especially my brood nest this time of year with a honey flow going on to do the powdered sugar treatment. I have a few mites in my older hive, at least I think I do from what I've counted and seen (I am not very confident at this yet), but I'm not going to treat until I take off my honey. Can't all this wait until after the honey flow??? It also seems so disruptive to do this procedure every 3-4 days.

When I treated with powdered sugar last fall, I took my kitchen flour sifter and sifted each and every frame. It was sooo much fun. I only did this once and didn't count them because I was stupid and threw my sticky board away thinking it was part of the packaging material when the hive was shipped. Dah! No excuse for not counting this year....Can someone please tell us the counting method again...like I know you are suppose to divide the number of days (that you left the sticky board on) by the number of mites....what is the mite count danger level again?? **Nevermind...found the other thread. I'm catching up, its been a while since I've been online...sorry :rolleyes:

[ August 24, 2006, 10:42 PM: Message edited by: Cyndi ]

[Dave W]

GaSteve . . .

>I'm puzzled about all the recommendations to treat once a week for 3 to 4 weeks.

There are many recommendations as to how often to apply powdered sugar. "Once a week for 3 to 4 weeks" seems to be the latest from Mr. Tom Dowda of the Florida Dept. of Agriculture.


>Any flaws in that logic?
None that I can see. I agree treating EVERY DAY for 12 days might be best. But, most wont treat just once! smile.gif

My guess (and cant explain it well) is, if you treat today and REMOVE (not kill) all (?) phoretic mites present, as other mites hatch out during next 6 days, most (maybe not all) of these mites will still be phoretic when 2nd application occurs on day 7. Does it work? Mr Dowda says it does smile.gif


Edited to add:
V-mite enters another brood cell in 4 to 6 days when brood is present (measured by Fries et. al., 1994[http://www.culturaapicola.com.ar/apuntes/sanidad/ecol%20monogr.pdf – p9, Accessed 11/9/05] (6-7 days, BC, Mar 04, p39) to more than 150 days depending on season and availability of brood [Ref 12, p1121].

[ August 25, 2006, 01:47 PM: Message edited by: Dave W ]