Sugar treatment

[Goat Man]

I read in several places about treating for VM with powdered sugar. My question is what do you do with all that left over sugar all over ground under the hive after treatment?? I would think you would have a BIG ant problem to deal with!

Thanks for any replies..

[mrqb]

put the sticky board in before treatment,and yes there may be ants on the ground but there probably are ants there anyway

[Charlie B]

I place a tarp under the hives and then fold it up afterwards and pour the sugar along with the mites in the garbage.

[Goat Man]

How many supers will the sugar go through? Won't the mites from a top super just fall down onto the bees below?
Thanks for the replies.

[mike haney]

you take the boxes apart and do the bottom,add a box,do it,add another.....about a cup per box. a cheap flour sifter from a thrift shop or window screen (dump on and brush through) disperses the P.Sugar

[beemilk]

I have a related question .... a video on the internet said don't use 10X sugar you buy at the store because it contains corn starch...to keep if from clumping. Any truth to this? They also said just make you own powdered sugar using regular grandulated sugar processed in a blender.

[Beregondo]

Feeding sugar with corn starch in it may cause dysentery and should be avoided.

But a cup per box where any ingestion is incidental to clean up isn't a threat to hive health, especially of you have a screened bottom board. so it falls through.

[mike haney]

even without a screened bottom board they haul it out as trash. if they dont bring it IN as food and pass it around they dont recognize it as edible. just another misconnection of facts not use cheap powdered sugar.

[Seymore]

Beemilk, yes, store PS has cornstarch in it. I make my own using a coffee grinder - the kind that is about 5 inches tall and 3" diameter with a reservoir at the top. Takes about 2 minutes to do plenty to treat several hives. The batches are small but only run about 15 seconds each so its very quick.

[Goat Man]

Thank you all for the responses. You have cleared up this issue for me.

Sam;o)

[Jamie D]

While we're at it, I just spotted a VM on one of my lovely girls. This is my first year, I inspected 9 days ago. Will it do them any harm to do the sugar treatment today- so close to my last inspection? I try to be respectful of their home. I also don't want to have a bunch of deformed bees!

[KQ6AR]

If you saw a mite on one of you're bees you could have a high mite load. You really should check for mites using one of the other methods. Sugar dusting once per week isn't enough to lower a high mite load, it would take 2 or 3 times a week for 3 weeks.
www.scientificbeekeeping.com
If sugar dusting with a solid bottom board the mites will end up right back on the bees.
We just hose the ground off after sugar dusting.

[Rader Sidetrack]

if they dont bring it IN as food and pass it around they dont recognize it as edible.

Hmmm, so you're saying that since bees don't bring mountain camp sugar into the hive themselves, that they won't eat it and will haul it out as trash? I think you may be wrong with this statement. Also, syrup placed in in-hive feeders was not brought in by bees, yet there is plenty of evidence that they certainly eat that!

If you need more info on what mountain camp feeding is, see this thread:
http://www.beesource.com/forums/show...ess-for-winter
There is a link to mountain camp feeding photos in post #2

[Jamie D]

Uh oh... I'm in trouble then? I did buy Apiguard (along with some other treatments to have on hand) it is in my bee "first aid" kit. Should I forget the sugar and go straight to that? I looked really closely at the others hanging out on the hive and didn't see any others with VM on them, but now I am uberparanoid! Thanks for the reply!!

[mike haney]

Graham, I believe the difference is MOUNTAIN CAMP sugar is brought DOWN into the hive as is the syrup from most feeders and mimics the practice of bringing down stores into the broodnest (backfilling )
I am familiar with both practices and they have saved my hives at various times.
Please keep in mind this is just my opinion and I don't have any illusions about being an expert-and hope I haven't come across as as claiming to be one.

[KQ6AR]

I'm just saying that looking for mites on bees is not a good way to check for varroa mites. Many of the mites hide under the bees. I would check you're mite load with another method, then decide if you need to treat.

We use an unconventional method to check for mites. We slide a dry white board under the screened bottom board. Then we powder sugar the hive with one cup per deep. After 15-20 minutes we check the white board for mites. If I see less than 50 I don't get concerned. This is one of the least common methods for checking mites, but it works for us.

Uh oh... I'm in trouble then? I did buy Apiguard (along with some other treatments to have on hand) it is in my bee "first aid" kit. Should I forget the sugar and go straight to that? I looked really closely at the others hanging out on the hive and didn't see any others with VM on them, but now I am uberparanoid! Thanks for the reply!!

[Jamie D]

Thanks Dan. I did the dusting, and left the sticky board over night. I spotted roughly 50 mites (on each hive's board). Not so panicked anymore. Appreciate the guidance!

[KQ6AR]

If doing the accelerated sugar drop test. You,
put in a dry white board,
Powder the hive,
Remove board in 15-20 minutes, then count mites.

A regular 24 hour count,
Do not powder sugar the hive it will make the numbers higher,
install sticky board, leave in leave in 72 hours,
count mites then divide number by 3.

Sounds like you had a nice low number, but I wonder if some mites might have crawled of the board with that much time, & the board covered with sugar/ IE not sticky. I don't know the answer so you might want to try again with one of the proven methods.