vaporising:size of colony/brood nest:no. of mites:time of year

[misterbee82]

I was told by one of our club members that if you dust the bees with a little powdered sugar they'll groom themselves and remove the varoa mites while their cleaning themselves. This works well if you have a mesh bottom the mites fall through it and can not get back into the hive easily.

 

[Gilberdyke John]

I was told by one of our club members that if you dust the bees with a little powdered sugar they'll groom themselves and remove the varoa mites while their cleaning themselves. This works well if you have a mesh bottom the mites fall through it and can not get back into the hive easily.

Knowledge in this forum suggests that the only worthwhile use of icing sugar on bees is in performing a sugar roll for assessment of infestation. The idea of dusting hives comes up from time to time (usually amongst beginners) but the lack of sustained results in controlling infestation speaks for itself.

 

[mbc]

I was told by one of our club members that if you dust the bees with a little powdered sugar they'll groom themselves and remove the varoa mites while their cleaning themselves. This works well if you have a mesh bottom the mites fall through it and can not get back into the hive easily.

Likewise I was told that if you dust your armpits with powdered sugar on a hot day they get sticky. I haven't tried that on a regular basis either.