Dear all; I was following your discussion, however, I was too busy to answer them sooner. >Dave wrote: >Hi Aaron and all, >I read it as using the powdered sugar as the control >and not just detection. Dave read it right. The title of my PhD thesis is " Detection of major mite pests of Apis mellifera and development of non-chemical control of varroasis". In my detection method I did not use powdery sugar, as my method have higher detection efficiency, for more information see http://www.beekeeping.com/articles/detection_varroa.htm Allen Dick said: > When dusting with OTC in icing sugar, we were > always cautioned to be careful not to get the dust > over the brood area, since we were told that the > sugar would fall down and dust into open brood -- > and kill it. OTC is toxic not only to brood, but to bees also. Hence, it is recommended to dissolve the OTC to 4 -5 litter of sugar when possible. Allen wrote: > Have you seen any effect on the *open* brood? Yes, there is no adverse effect on colony growth. So it can not be fetal to open brood. I have published the effect of dusting on colony growth in my dissertation that consists of eight articles and the thesis, a total of 110 pages. Two dozen of this book are available for the most interested beekeepers/ scientific library for 15 $ (fifteen USD Airmail included). You may send your request to me directly till the end of this month. During June I will not be available. Best regards Kamran ------------------------------------------------ Dr. Kamran Fakhimzadeh Department of Applied Biology P. O. Box 27 00014- Universtity of Helsinki Tel. +358 40 55 36 791 (Mobile) Tel. +358 9 191 58393 Fax. +358 9 191 58463