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Date: | Sun, 24 Sep 2006 08:54:18 -0400 |
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"I tried powdered sugar on two colonies that had natural fall of about 60
mites/day. Did three treatments, four days apart, dusting both boxes.
Theoretically, this should have removed most phoretic mites through an
entire mite reproductive cycle. Mite counts 2 days later were lower, but
not by much. The result surprised me--I expected a much higher overall
kill"
Hi Randy, when you do your mite counts after using powdered sugar, wait
at least 5 days. The bees groom themselves and our mite counts have been
high for at least 3 days after removing the powdered sugar. By 5 day the
counts are much lower. Could you do one more count? I have done mite
counts the day after a PS dusting, 3 days and then 5 days. The count on
day 5+ is quite a bit lower than day 3 and the day after, way too many to
count. I'm sure we talked about smoking and not smoking before pulling
stickies. Smoke causes about twice as many mites to fall. We are not
smoking the bees at all when we use sticky boards for 24 hour counts to
try and be consistent.
Randy, again, thank you for including powdered sugar treatments in your
experiments.
Sincerely,
Janet Brisson, Grass Valley, CA
-- Visit www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l for rules, FAQ and other info ---
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