varroa verses powered sugar

[Rob-bee]

I dusted my hive today with some homemade powdered sugar. {blender+regular sugar at high speed}. And looks like the sugar is winning the battle.I think it is a good treatment for the varroa when the honey flow is on. It also knocked down some small hive beetles too.It was such a joy to see those little blood suckers struggling around it that powder.

[kenpkr]

I want to do the powdered sugar trtmt also. But I don't want to attract anymore ants than there already are. I have SBB's on but if I were to put the plastic insert in to catch all the falling sugar I wouldn't be able to get it out without the sugar on the board getting scraped off and landing on the ground. Any ideas? Could I use the Sundance pollen trap somehow to catch all that sugar?

[2rubes]

Hi, that was one of our problems as well. We designed a new IPM screen board that you can check out at www.countryrubes.com. (http://www.countryrubes.com.) The site is only half done, but I wanted to get it out there.
We use doors over a wide space so we don't scrape the sugar and mites off and to make mite counting easier.
What I was doing prior was removing the board, our hives are on stands, and sliding a piece of cardboard underneath. Prior to that, we used a sheet.
You are right, its really important to clean up that sugar. Not only because of ants, but the bees as well. After 24 hours, the sugar turns to icing and the mites can crawl over it, and worst, it attracts bees during a dearth. Now you have live mites and bees and the mites will reattach and reinfest the hive.
I'm still working on the website, so it might be under construction in the early morning.
You can write me at rubes@infostations.com for more questions on the bottom boards.
Janet

[Oyster]

Should powdered (confectioner's sugar) only be used on the brood frames? I ask this because I am wondering that if any sugar gets into the uncapped honey cells, it would become the "seed" to cause honey to crystallize after extraction?

[kenpkr]

Good question about the sugar seeding any honey to cause crystals. I don't know. Anybody?
2rubes, I couldn't follow your website link; got a msg about the domain being invalid. Would be interested in seeing a pic of your modified SBB. I may try to slide some cardboard under the hive just before I dust. How long should it be left under there before I remove it and the sugar/mite detritus? I'm also wondering if I might be able to use my Sundance pollen trap somehow to catch the sugar/mites. It has that large, removable drawer that might effectively catch it.

[2rubes]

Hi, sorry, I just reposted the web site. Please check it again.
Remove the sugar in 24 hours. Not any longer. It turns to icing very quickly. I bet you could you a pollen trap. Could you clean out the suar and then float oil in it? Our very first boards had window screen for wire and it was still very effective for the first four years. The bees kept filling the little holes with proprolis, and after a few years, the bees had a new floor.
Janet

[Phoenix]

Janet, your site still won't come up.
"This domain is not valid."

[2rubes]

Wow, I'm not sure what's going on, I'm so new at this website stuff. I called the company and they were able to bring it up, and so was I. Since I was working on it and saved it again this morning, around 5isham Pacific Time, there is a chance you tried to logged on while I was uploading. The other thing the company said was to clear your cached. I did have a bad mistake that knocked me off, but that was corrected. He said perhaps your cache has the older verson.
I hope that works.
Thanks so much for letting me know.
I also have it posted on Ebay under Beekeeping IPM anti Varroa Screen Bottom Board and I have a lot of info there, but I have schematics and pics on the website www.CountryRubes.com. (http://www.CountryRubes.com.)

[Rob-bee]

This domain is not valid. still getting it here too

[eris]

Delete the period. The link lists the site as countryrubes.com. Just get rid of that last period and the site works fine. I didn't see a price?

[louis1st]

Hi
i have just treated my bees with icing sugar, but actually found the first results quite poor.

I expected a huge fall of varroas on the bottom floor but it didn't take place (I just checked at the entrance ).
I however did see a varroa dying after about 20 minutes following the treatment.

Does this have to be repeated every 7 days during all the honey flow period?

Should i use some other methods as well or is icing sugar good enough by its own??
Your comments are welcome!
thanks

[danno1800]

I just treated my bees for the first time using powdered sugar. I poured it on the top of the frames, then brushed it down with my bee brush. When I pulled the frames I was amazed at the coverage I got from this simple technique. The bees were covered with a light coating all over the hive. Hope it works on the mites. I'll repeat every 7 days. Thanks for sharing this varroa control method.

[2rubes]

Thanks for figuring out what was wrong with our site. I am so new at this. Right now we are selling our boards for $30 plus shipping. If you live in Northern Calif, Sacramento Beekeeping Supplies and BeeKind Beekeeping Supplies (in Sebastopol) are carrying them for $39.99 each. We will keep the price at $30 until we find a manufacture, then it will most likely go up to $35.00.
We do the powdered sugar every 7-10 days 3 times, like Sucrocide. You are trying to catch all of the mites in the capped brood. If you need to treat your hives during the honey flow, you might want to remove your honey supers. The bees will turn the sugar into nectar and if you want to harvest your honey, that would contaminate it. In 48 hours, you can put the honey supers back on. The bees will have cleaned up all of the sugar and put the sugar nectar into spaces outside of the brood.
We treated all of our hives before the honey flow in the early spring, about the same time you would use Apistan. One hive was very infested, I believe because it was in a very shady spot. We did a 4th treatment on that, and then a 5th. After the 5th treatment, we had very little mite fall. This was a severaly infested hives, right down to bees having deformed wing virus. We are watching it very closly.
Make sure you have a way to clean up the sugar. That's really important. The sugar turns to icing after 24 hours and no longer kills the mites. The mites just walk over it. Bees would be attracted to the sugar if there is a dearth and the mites hop right back on the bee.
That's why we made the boxes with the wide openings, so we could easily remove the sugar without it scraping off to the bottom of the hive. Of course, removing the sugar helps keep the ant population down.

We plan to do another treatment after our main blackberry flow ceases, when there is a dearth for a few weeks before the thistle bloom. This would be a preventative for mite buildup. In the past, we would do an Apistan treatment in mid-August. Now we plan to do a treatment in late June (after blackberry) and again in mid-August. Hopefully we will be able to pull our hives through the winter without Apistan this year.
Thanks for your response,
Janet

[MichaelW]

Is anyone trying the powdered sugar method without chemical treatments, or are you just using it as a way to treat during the honey flow? I'm considering passing on the Apistan this fall. I use screened bottom boards also.

[Rob-bee]

I am just useing it during the honey flow. Thinking about trying Apilife VAR this fall.
http://www.beeequipment.com/products.asp?pcode=788

[Oyster]

Janet (or others),

<If you need to treat your hives during the honey flow, you might want to remove your honey supers. The bees will turn the sugar into nectar and if you want to harvest your honey, that would contaminate it. In 48 hours, you can put the honey supers back on.>

Would placing a bee escape board under the supers first to allow all bees to evacuate the supers, and then using the powdered sugar technique to dust the frames below the supers, allow me to leave the supers on the hive? I am worried that during those two days that the bees must be kept out of these supers, wax moths may cause damage to them.

[Dick Allen]

Personally, I think the concerns about powdered sugar are overblown. The amount of sugar being dusted on bees is negligible as far as 'contaminating' honey IMO. Since there is nectar readily available any residual powdered sugar in the nest would likely be removed by house bees. In fact, when I dust with sugar, within a few hours any residual sugar ends up on the bottom board where it dessicates fallen mites and within a day or two it's completely out of the hive. It seems unlikely to me any powdered sugar that may get into honey would cause granulation.