Hi there, we have been using powdered sugar intensely as our only 
miticide since March of 2005.  Please check out our website for more details 
www.countyrubes.com and check out some of our links on powdered sugar.
   We brought our hives through the winter without any losses and now we are 
at the start of our raspberry flow and our hives are booming.   March of 
2005 we were severely infested with varroa with very high daily falls 
between 20 and 50 and lots of deformed wings.  We used these treatments 3 
times spaced 7 days apart almost every other month avoiding honey flows. 
Our first treatments showed over 1000 (we stopped counting at 1000, too much 
to do)  mites trapped in the powdered sugar.  By August, after a 4 part 
treatment, when mite populations should have been soaring, our counts were 
lower than ever.  We continued dusting our hives about once a month through 
the winter. We live in California where we get a nice few days every month 
and our bees do fly almost all year.   We have had absolutely no stomach 
problems and have used no products for nosema.
    A year latter, our 24 hours drops have been between 0 and 9.  We had one 
hive go queenless for three weeks (had trouble with the queen cell in the 
protected) and did a one time treatment and found approximately maybe 100 
mites, the most we have seen in a while.  The hive was phoretic with no 
mites hiding in capped cells.   I'm sure this means something to the 
scientific community.
    We have learned to tolerate higher mite loads and not run for chemical 
miticides when the counts were high and are so pleased with our results.
    We will 3 part treat again after the berry flow (we have blackberry 
next) and then again in early August (the critical time).  Then we will 
treat as needed as I think we have the varroa under control.
    I have been getting 100's of letters from people using powdered sugar 
with great results.  There are more than a  few beekeepers who dust  every 
time they enter their hives.   Just talked to a man who is using a screen 
board, putting it on top of his supers, pours the sugar onto that and 
brushes the screen, not the top of his frames.  This doesn't upset his bees 
like  the brushing of the frames do.  It upsets the bees like when you brush 
them off honey frames, which now has me thinking about our bee blower and 
using that to blow the sugar off the frames into the hive next time we 
treat.  Other than the brushing, the bees do not seem to mind the powdered 
sugar.  When you first sift it on, you get a curious buzz, nothing angry. 
They do get a little upset over brushing the sugar of the tops of hives.
      I did do some test last year to see if the open brood was affected 
with powdered sugar and and then with rye flour.  The rye flour was a 
diaster, killed brood, got moldy in the winter, didn't kill the bees, but 
just made a mess of everything.  I got the idea of rye flour from an old 
timer who used it sucessfully as a pollen subistute.  Anyone want a 25# bag 
of organic rye flour?
    So far, couldn't be happier.
    Sincerely,
    Janet Brisson

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