Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: mat on July 21, 2008, 11:04:58 am
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I read in May Bee Culture about powder sugar treatment for Varoa. All powder sugar you can buy in the stores contains starch. My question is if it can be used for that purpose, or needs to be clear sugar.
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Do a search on the board
This subject has been covered many, many times !!
Bee-Bop
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I use regular powdered sugar that you get from the store. It is mainly to stimulate grooming and thereby bet rid of part of the varroa problem. I use screened bottom boards so it just falls through to the sticky board that I put under when applying the treatment. I do not use any chemicals and have not had a high count yet after pulling the board back out for a count. Hopefully this will continue to be the case. Hope this helps as I know that with a lot of us new to the board were not here for the many many times this has been gone through, and when I typed in the powdered sugar treatment into the search box nothing came up. I am sure most everything has been gone over more times than I can count but it does not take that long to type out a little information. I am thankful to all here who have helped me so far and hope for the continued help, I sure know I'll need it. I don't post that much but I check out the posts most every day and usually pick up something I need from someone else's posts.
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I have never been able to find powdered sugar without the cornstarch and from the help I have received here on this forum, it is fine to use this sort of powdered sugar. This is the way I keep the mites off of the bees, just with powdered sugar treatments.
Annette
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Here's a take from another expert, the maker of Bee-Quick:
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Jim Fischer
02-22-2007, 08:30 AM
> Can you use powdered sugar from the grocery store?
Sure!
> I heard there were anti caking agents in the
> sugar so you shouldn't use it.
Nope, that was and still is bogus info.
Plain old Domino's 10x works great.
The small amount of starch won't hurt anything.
The scare stories about the sugar killing open
brood were bogus, as people were remembering
(or running across old comments) about that
problem from the days when antibiotics were
mixed with powdered sugar (Terramycin®, which
is oxy-tetracycline), and "dusted" on the hive.
Tetracycline can and will kill open brood.
Sugar won't kill anything.
Doesn't even kill the mites, it just makes them
loose their grip, and fall, which is why you
need a Vaseline-coated sticky board to trap
the little beasties, or they will crawl back
up into the hive after they clean off their
tarsal pads.
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Thank you very much for the responses. So I am all set: I have SBBs and plenty of powder sugar in the store. Tomorrow I'm gonna do first treatment.
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just don't do it with the honey supers on. ;)
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The local bee club preisdent said to add 25% garlic powder as it makes the mites dizzy and they fall off when bees are grooming each other. I have not tried it yet ,but have all intentions trying this fall. 1:4 ratio garlic powder/powder sugar.
Comments????
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If you don't have sticky board, even if you have some easel paper or butcher paper, put it under the hive before you dust them. Paper should be white so they will show up. There is nothing scientific about this as far as mite count/population, but I enjoy seeing all those little buggers falling on the paper. You'll probably see chunks of pollen falling. If you have hive beetles you will see a few of those land on the paper too, and it's fun to crunch them! I'm not so sure about the mites crawling back into the hive if they don't get stuck to something. Maybe after a long time. I have left the paper for 30 minutes and watched it closely most of that time and the mites seem to stay just where they are on the paper. It's those darn beetles that will take flight if you don't squish them quick! I then roll up the paper and take it in and flush the debris.
The first time I used the Dowda method I spilled a lot of sugar around the hive and we had a little rain that day and I ended up with lots of sugar ants all over the place. So be mindful of that. I take a fine strainer and dump in about a cup of powdered sugar and then shake it over the brood box and then gently brush the sugar off the top bars into the space between the frames. You'll have little ghost bees flying around by then. Oh, and mine don't seem to care for this treatment, especially the brushing. I think they pretty much hate the bee brush!
I agree with beekybuzzard - I am sure I have asked questions that have been covered in some fashion many times, and folks have been very kind to share the information again. Depending on your search terms you may not find what you're looking for, so I don't think there's harm in asking something that might have been answered before. It stimulates conversation, which in my mind is the goal of a forum. Otherwise, the owner of this site might as well just forward it to Mr. Bush's site! :-)
Tracy
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The local bee club preisdent said to add 25% garlic powder as it makes the mites dizzy and they fall off when bees are grooming each other. I have not tried it yet ,but have all intentions trying this fall. 1:4 ratio garlic powder/powder sugar.
Comments????
I like the powdered sugar method because it is siimple and easy to use and the bees can consume the application. Any fine powder will cause the varroa to lose their grip and fall off but the sugar is consumable and they will add water to it and turn it into honey. You can't do that with Garlic powder, Flour, Talc, or other fine powders.
As for the use of garlic making the varroa dizzy, I'll file that under myths and superstions until some proof comes along.
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I read in May Bee Culture about powder sugar treatment for Varoa. All powder sugar you can buy in the stores contains starch. My question is if it can be used for that purpose, or needs to be clear sugar.
you could make your own powdered sugar in a blender, but it will get hard and stick together without the cornstarch. I tried it for a while then went back to using the store PS.
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I have been monitoring my mite load regularly this season, and it seems to vary quite a bit....from 1or 2 in a weeks period, to 5 or 6 in the same time period. I don't think that I have a need to treat at this point, but I will keep an eye on the levels, and if I do treat, then I will most likely try the powdered sugar approach.
My question is this....
Kathyp mentioned not to do the treatment with honey supers on. Is this only because the bees will consume the sugar and store it with the nectar in the supers? Just looking for clarification.
--Steve
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My question is this....
Kathyp mentioned not to do the treatment with honey supers on. Is this only because the bees will consume the sugar and store it with the nectar in the supers? Just looking for clarification.
--Steve
I think Kathyp was joking, because if you use apistan you are not suppose to have the supers on.
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I have always been slow on the up-take. :oops:
--Steve
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My question is this....
Kathyp mentioned not to do the treatment with honey supers on. Is this only because the bees will consume the sugar and store it with the nectar in the supers? Just looking for clarification.
--Steve
I think Kathyp was joking, because if you use apistan you are not suppose to have the supers on.
Now I'm confused. I thought Kathyp was referencing the powdered sugar treatment and not to do it with the honey supers on because of the reason Steve mentioned.
??
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I know when I do the powdered sugar treatments, I always remove the honey supers first, because I do not want anything to contaminate them, even some powdered sugar, because then it would not be pure honey anymore. If I am leaving the honey supers for them, well then I do not care at all and powder away.
Hope this helps
Annette
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If you're deadset against using powdered sugar with cornstarch in it, you can make your own powdered sugar from granulated in your blender... but it takes a LONG time to get it that finely powdered, and if you buy cheap blenders like I do, it may burn out the motor. A much slower method that's better for your blenders, is that Harbor Freight sells rock tumblers... Simply load up the drum to half-full with granulated sugar and tumble for about a month to two months and you'll have 100% pure powdered sugar.
Not that the cornstarch would hurt anything, but if you hate the idea of it, there you go.