Powdered sugar for mite control

[flyboy]

https://www.countryrubes.com/images/BCA_Nov_2009_powder_sugar.pdf

[BeeMaster2]

Flyboy,
I tried using PS on my first hives. Then at a club meeting Jamie gave a speech and he talked about this study. Never used it again.
I collected feral hives and let the bees take care of the mites. It has worked pretty well.
Jim

[Better.to.Bee.than.not]

The study doesn't make much sense to me frankly. Their method is dusting every 2 weeks. ie on a 14 day cycle. mites stay on bees however 3-14 days average of 7. Now we all know PS does in fact get mites knocked off bees...we can see it for ourselves. And this study also mentions that it knocks down mite population for 24 hours. I use the OTS system to control mites, mostly, by breaking their breed cycle, but during the time of breaking their breed cycle I dust with PS, which knocks them off the bees.

[BeeMaster2]

Jamie did the tests per the instructions that were floating around at the time he did it. He did it to see if it was effective.
I used PS yesterday. I have a new swarm in a nuc that I got last Tuesday. It was real strong when I put it in the box and looked real weak looking through the STB. I decided to try feeding them and over night they used 2 pint jars of sugar water.
I sprinkled PS on the bees leaving the hive to see if they were from one of my other hives. None of the bees ended up on any of my other hives. It is a good quick check. Of course they may bee from a friends hive a mile away.  :-D
Jim

[Better.to.Bee.than.not]

Thats sorta a interesting use of PS, to mark em to see if they are going into other hives/etc.