Powdered Sugar (Biotechnical Method)
Behandlungsmittel
Powdered sugar is not a medicinal product and contains no active substance.
Powdered sugar is not a medicinal product and contains no active substance. It works purely mechanically: the fine sugar dust gets between mite and bee, the mite loses its grip on the bee's body and falls off. At the Kirchhain Bee Institute, this was developed into a method for determining a colony's Varroa infestation without having to kill bees.
The established and well-documented use is therefore infestation diagnosis, not treatment. For the bee sample, a cup is filled with about 50 grams of bees, mixed with powdered sugar in a shaking jar, and the sugar together with the dislodged mites is sieved out and counted. Comparative trials against the classic washing method showed very good agreement, and the powdered bees survived the procedure almost completely. The Bavarian State Institute also names the powdered sugar method as an alternative to hive debris diagnosis for infestation assessment.
For the measurement to be accurate, the powdered sugar must be absolutely dry and lump-free, and the weather must also be dry. Damp sugar clumps, so not all mites fall off and the result comes out too low. About 250 grams of powdered sugar is enough for around seven colonies. Residues are not an issue; powdered sugar is unproblematic within the colony.
Dusting colonies with powdered sugar is not suitable as a sole control measure. It only reaches the mites sitting freely on the bees, not those in the capped brood, where in summer the vast majority of the mite population sits. Consequently, the bee institutes' control concepts list powdered sugar not as a treatment method but as a diagnostic tool. Anyone wanting to reduce infestation combines biotechnical measures such as drone brood removal, forming nucleus colonies, brood removal, or the split-and-treat method with treatment using approved products.
The real benefit of the method lies precisely in this: it makes treatments manageable in the first place. Anyone who knows the level of infestation can avoid unnecessary treatments and intervene in time in a serious case. No protective equipment is required beyond the usual beekeeping protective clothing.
Quellen (3)
- Brunnemann-Stubbe, G.: Bienenprobe mit Puderzucker, ADIZ/db/IF 8/2011 (Bieneninstitut Kirchhain), bereitgestellt von der Landesanstalt für Bienenkunde Hohenheim
- LWG Veitshöchheim: Bayerisches Varroabehandlungskonzept, Medikamentöse Standardverfahren
- LAVES Institut für Bienenkunde Celle: Leitfaden Varroa-Bekämpfung in Öko-Imkereien