Mite Test

[margot]

I've searched unsuccessfully for directions for the powdered sugar mite test. I've read that I should put about 1.5 inches of bees in a quart jar--but how much sugar,and how long should I wait before releasing the bees? At what mite level should I consider treatments?

[Ravenseye]

Margot, if you have PowerPoint, try this presentation. Slide 7 might be a perfect answer. If you don't have PowerPoint, Google:

Powdered sugar sampling to monitor Varroa mite population

You should get a hit from the University of Delaware and you can then view the file in HTML instead.

[rmthurman]

try this site http://www.scientificbeekeeping.com/

[Loonerone]

We used the method on the scientific beekeeper - we had 1 mite with the sugar roll and 11 mites on a 24 hour natural mite drop = this in a hive that was new in May, has two deeps filled with brood and has made two supers of honey. We are trying to decide if we can put another honey super on and wait to treat later in Sept. We may also do a powdered sugar dusting and then put the super on. We extracted the two supers last weekend. The bees have brood in 7 frames in the second deep. They aren't slowing down yet.

[KQ6AR]

We use the accelerated mite drop method.
Put in a dry white board, & powder sugar the hive with one cup per brood box as you normally would. Count the live mites after 10 minutes.

We typically have about 5 = 1% infestation for average size colony. If I find 10 I will think about doing something different to get the mite level lower.

I know this is the time of year levels will start to rise. I've haven't been able to find threshold levels numbers for my area. There are different exceptable numbers depending on the month, in different climates.

[Loonerone]

I did the powdered sugar today on our small hive - one adult mite - and 3 of the little white ones that run like crazy and don't seem to be slowed by the vaseline - are these the males and do you add them in to the count? I read different information about this.

I don't think I covered all the bees, so my count is probably low. But I had no brood for 5 weeks, so I think the mite cycle stopped for a while.

Thanks for the info,