Do you use Icing Sugar as part of your IPM?

[Neils]

That's a bit harsh! Unlike homeopathy I do think icing sugar has some demonstrable effect.

[Jon]

That's a bit harsh! Unlike homeopathy I do think icing sugar has some demonstrable effect.

eventual death of the colony if used in isolation as some beekeepers appear to do!

[Neils]

Hence the part of IPM element to the question

[Jon]

I Know I know but you need to bold the part over on biobees

[madasafish]

I hadn't heard about the strings method
How do you make them

http://tinyurl.com/cufvs4f

(Warning: link to biobees for those of a nervous disposition... which rules out most forum readers:-)

[Mellifera Crofter]

... If there is an effect of regular dowsing with powdered sugar it may be via the reduction in colony vigour which by itself will slow a Varroa build-up.

... I think its a bit like homeopathy its clearly rubbish but if you believe it works you feel better

I've never dusted with sugar so I have no experience of it, but the Apivar vet laughed when I suggested trying it, saying that at least the bees will like it - but perhaps not if they become slug-like. How long does this reduction in vigour last and why would sugar-dusting reduce the bees' vigour?

Back to sugar-dusting as part of an IPM varroa treatment - isn't it true that sugar-dusting causes the mites hitching a ride on the bees' backs to lose their grip? (So not quite in the homeopathy league.)
Kitta

[gavin]

Well, the bit about reduced vigour was just my guesswork. No evidence whatsoever! But it is a rather invasive procedure which has to be performed weekly to have much chance of knocking off enough mites to do something about their build-up. The sugar falling into cells might damage brood too. Again, my supposition.

OK, Neil, sugar dusting as part of IPM? Nah, still don't think that it is worthwhile although feel free to try, and perhaps a swarm a few days in is a useful time to try. Oxalic or lactic acid would be better though. Even then, when there are no mites in sealed cells, I reckon a goodly proportion of mites on adult bees (most call them phoretic but it doesn't really fit the desciption) are feeding and clamped down between abdominal segments, half tucked in under some integument. I don't imagine these ones will fall off after a brief sugar dusting and grooming session.

What bee colonies need - either in time for a fresh start in the coming spring (oxalic, December), or as colonies start to wind down for winter and raise winter bees (thymol or Apivar, early September) is to have the majority of their mite load removed. A weekly tickle with powdered sugar may just remove 10% each time and for some of summer not even keep up with mite multiplication.

10%? If - 80% are in sealed cells, and half of those in the open remain attached, that's 10% each time knocked off. When there is drone brood mites can multiply 4x per month.

For me, IPM is keeping an eye on things and acting in the right way at the right time. Prophyactic oxalic treatment in mid-winter as a routine may not be the responsive treatment many people think of as IPM but it is sensible and pragmatic. The summer treatment is the optional one for me, but that should be something that knocks down mite populations to a low level so that the smaller brood nest producing winter bees is not overwhelmed.

[Bumble]

The sugar falling into cells might damage brood too. Again, my supposition.

I read somewhere, can't remember where, that icing sugar can cause honey to crystallise.

[Phil Moss]

It can be mixed in with extracted liquid honey to act as a 'seed; to initiate crystaisation, but you are adding sucrose.....
naughty boy!
Use a nice fine crystailsed honey.

[gavin]

One more thing I do for Varroa, which you would regard as part of IPM, if the numbers are high in early summer, is drone trapping. Do it well (provide a place for them to make drone brood, usually a shallow frame, make sure there is little elsewhere, and give them a second one a week or two later) and most Varroa should be removed.