Sucrocide?

[GreenMountainRose]

What results are people seeing with the use of sucrocide?

[GaSteve]

My experience is that it gives excellent mite kills. The catch is that there's no real easy way to apply it. You have to pull every frame and spray every bee. There is some current work going on to see if it can be applied by spraying it between the frames without removing the frames. The effectiveness is obviously reduced but still might be high enough.

[Dick Allen]

Just wondering, does the sucrocide come with easy to follow instructions for calibrating the sprayer? I'm thinking of trying it this summer too.

[GaSteve]

The instructions for calibrating the sprayer are sent with the product (but are not on the container label itself). I don't remember the details, but basically you time how long it takes your sprayer to fill a certain volume. Then you use that time to calculate how many seconds of spray it takes to apply the correct amount of active ingredient to one side of a frame. It's not as complicated as it sounds. I think it usually works out to about 3-4 seconds per frame side. I'm not sure how critical the spray time is. Basically you thoroughly coat the bees without drowning them. What is important is to carefully measure when mixing the solution. Too much water and you won't kill any mites. Too much sucrocide and you may kill your bees.

[east_stingray]

You guys have any other info on this? I haven't heard anything about it, but the hands-on aspect for some reason makes me think it will work better than other methods. Any info would be greatly appreciated and I'll do a search.

[TwT]

I was talking to a friend the other day and he said he was getting good results just taking hive bodies apart and with a garden sprayer, spraying from the top of the frames down. he said he's not sure if it is the answer but he says he has had good mite drop counts. he doesn't count the mites but says he gets alot of them and hasn't lose a hive yet and started useing it this pass fall.

[danno1800]

TwT, I also use the same method as your friend, but I also spray from the bottom up as well as the top down. By the way, the mix is 3 tablespoons of Sucricide to 2 gals. of water. The easiest way is to just buy a 2 gal. garden sprayer and put it on mist setting. Takes about 5-7 minutes per hive. Repeat 2 times [every 7 days] to get the mites coming out of capped brood. Good luck!

[GaSteve]

The garden sprayer is definitely the way to go. The catalogs show a hand held spray bottle. I can't imagine using that on 20 frames let alone 20 hives.

[franc]

What about using a paint sprayer and air compressor set-up to mist the entire hive.Lifting each frame is too much work and does more damage than good.

[Martha]

I understand you can use this with the supers on. Also, if it gets into cells does it cause a problem?

thanks,
Martha

[Antero]

>>Sucrocide™. This miticide also became available in 2004. It contains a sugar ester that is diluted
with water and sprayed over frames containing bees. Frames must be removed and the bees on each
side must be sprayed. All frames containing adult bees must be treated. Sucrocide™ is most effective
when brood is not present. If brood is present, the manufacturer recommends three applications
should be made at 7-day intervals. Although labor intensive, treatments can be made at any time,
including during honey production. The product enters the mites’ breathing tubes and suffocates
them and dissolves the waxy coating of their exoskeleton. Bees can be killed if Sucrocide™ is
applied at greater than recommended concentrations.<<


Terry

[GaSteve]

>I understand you can use this with the supers on.

You can but that's a lot more frames of bees to cover if you want to get them all. However it may be enough to only apply it to the bees in the brood nest as the mites on these bees (as opposed to the foragers up in the honey supers) are the ones most likely enter a brood cell to reproduce. Maybe someone who knows more about mites than I do can comment on this.

>Also, if it gets into cells does it cause a problem?

I've never read any evidence that it's damages open brood, and usually any open brood is covered with bees so not much gets on the open brood anyway.

>What about using a paint sprayer and air compressor set-up to mist the entire hive.

The trick would be getting enough active ingredient on the bees to kill the mites. If you come up with something that works, let us know.

[Darrel Wright]

I am trying sucrocide, did the lift and spray this past fall. Fair amount of work, but it seems to have done the job. I was thinking of trying to make some kind of spray wand that would spray from up and down it's whole length, then just running it down the aisles. I don't know if a mist is going to work bc you are supposed to "thoroughly wet" the bees. Without some sort of contraption that lets you leave the frames in place, I think the crack pipe is probably a better treatment.

[Pete0]

This past month's issue of Bee Culture had an article about using powdered sugar and "dusting" the bees. Seems the effort to dust each frame is the same as the application of Sucrocide. So if the work is the same then my question would be does the effectiveness justify the cost of the product as well as getting my feet wet?

Pete0

[Craig W.]

I think if it works its worth it, any xtra thing that might help eliminate those pests, without harmful chemicals is a plus, as long as it does not affect honey flow. Liquid Gold, Texas wine.

Craig