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  • From: Randall Austin <ra41717 AT gmail.com>
  • To: Thomas Grizzle <griz AT mindspring.com>
  • Cc: ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [ocba] Powdered Sugar Q's
  • Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2012 14:40:44 -0400

Several of us were able to attend an talk given by Don Hopkins at the NCSBA Spring Conference last weekend in Morganton. Don showed us a sticky board that he had collected a number of years ago when varroa was just getting ramped up in NC. He and another inspector had applied a commercial miticide to determine the mite level of a hive. I won't name the treatment that was used but it was considered the most effective and least offensive at that time. The mite fall on the sticky board looked like somebody had spilled a whole box of coarse pepper all over it. Good job! The mites are dead! Hurray! Most folks would have happily packed up and moved on. But Don is a curious fellow so he did the sticky board test again on the same hive, this time using a different commercial treatment (which is no longer on the market). Yikes! The second sticky board was COVERED with dead mites too, even more than the first. Aside from this quite visual lesson about the potential for developing resistance, Don's message was that we shouldn't assume a voluminous mite fall on a sticky board means we've made a meaningful difference in the hive. Regardless of your method of control, test & retest until you can be assured you don't have a health-threatening problem. And don't put all your faith in a single test method. Simple tests, each with their own limitations, include the sticky board, sugar shake (jar with screened lid) and drone pupae inspection.

Randall Austin

On Mon, Mar 12, 2012 at 12:26 PM, Thomas Grizzle <griz AT mindspring.com> wrote:
All,

Related to the use of powdered sugar, I am just finishing up an excellent
book entitled, "Parasite Rex," by Cal Zimmer which delves deeply into the
world of parasites.  A great read I can highly recommend.

As parasites, varroa mites must be constantly adapting, changing,
exploiting, and evolving.  It occurred to me reading Lewis' post below that
the use of any means to "kill off" mites is a selection pressure.  In other
words, each time we treat with powdered sugar, or any other treatment, that
is intended to reduce the burden of mites in a given hive, we remove the
mites that are affected by that treatment, but in all likelihood leaving
behind a small population of mites that are resistant, who then survive to
reproduce this trait.  Point here, even though powdered sugar is non-toxic,
"chemical free" and all that, if not used sparingly, it will most likely
gradually force the evolution of the mite in favor of a more "clingy" mite
that holds on more tightly.  Just a prediction.

Tom

Message: 1
Date: Sun, 11 Mar 2012 22:46:41 -0400
From: Lewis Cauble <lewis AT hivebody.com>
Subject: Re: [ocba] Powered Sugar Q's
To: Orange County Bees <ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Message-ID: <19970B8D-E82C-4082-B421-85A229006F48 AT hivebody.com">19970B8D-E82C-4082-B421-85A229006F48 AT hivebody.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Read the studies and use what they have learned to influence your
experiments.  Use google scholar and other resources to dig deep.

http://www.doiserbia.nb.rs/img/doi/0567-8315/2011/0567-83151103309S.pdf
To conclude, the dynamics of the treatment affected the degree of
infestation in bee colonies. However, the efficacy of sugar dusting was
significantly lower in comparison with the one of flumethrin (positive
control). Thus, in spite of considerable favourable effects on the decline
in the degree of infestation with mites, by no means may dusting with
pulverised sugar be advised to beekeepers as the one and only means of bee
protection against V. destructor.

The treatment with sugar dust applied in a way described in the work may be
used as means of combat against varroa in combination with biotechological
measures or organic acids and aetheric oils in organic bee keeping.

http://www.langleybeeclub.org/files/reports/Powdered%20Sugar%20Mite%20Contro
l%20-%20U%20of%20Florida.pdf

We reject our hypothesis that biweekly dustings with powdered sugar would
significantly reduce varroa populations. Even though dusting with powdered
sugar resulted in significant mite fall initially (Fakhimzadeh, 2000), we
did not find an overall reduction in colony mite populations within the
limits of our study.




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