Author Topic: Sugar Grease Patties For Mite Control  (Read 3533 times)

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Offline Jen

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Sugar Grease Patties For Mite Control
« on: January 15, 2018, 06:15:29 pm »
A newbee asked me about sugar grease patties, sugar mixed with Crisco. I remember this from years back, and I'm thinking that it was designed for treachea mites. My first response is that the Crisco is going to grease up the bees which may plug up their breathing apparatus, and if the grease gets on their wings the bees won't be able to fly. Any input?
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Offline apisbees

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Re: Sugar Grease Patties For Mite Control
« Reply #1 on: January 15, 2018, 06:36:36 pm »
this is an effective control for Tracheal mite control. It is not effective against varroa. If you are using brood manipulation for varroa control, then you may want to use grease patties to control the Tracheal mite. If you are using chemicals for varroa then they also kill the Tracheal mite.
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Offline Jen

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Re: Sugar Grease Patties For Mite Control
« Reply #2 on: January 15, 2018, 09:29:05 pm »
Hi Apis, according to my newbee friend, how does this application work. Friend was told that the bees coat themselves in the grease, then the mites cannot bite.

Do the bees eat the Crisco sugar and then that affects the treachea mites in the bees throat?


What I can visualize here is that the Crisco will coat the bees bodies and wings which is going to be deadly.
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Offline apisbees

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Re: Sugar Grease Patties For Mite Control
« Reply #3 on: January 16, 2018, 05:18:39 am »
Menthol extract was added to it to make it more effective and would cause the mites to suffocate in the trachea. The TM being so small was killed by the suffocating effect of thr grease but it did not effect the bees because they are so much bigger,
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Offline Wandering Man

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Re: Sugar Grease Patties For Mite Control
« Reply #4 on: January 16, 2018, 08:40:05 am »
Wouldn’t sugar grease patties make a nice cozy home for small hive beetles?
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Offline Bakersdozen

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Re: Sugar Grease Patties For Mite Control
« Reply #5 on: January 16, 2018, 09:16:05 am »
Wouldn’t sugar grease patties make a nice cozy home for small hive beetles?
A specific recipe wasn't given for the sugar grease patties, but if the patty contained pollen I would think so.  SHB overwinter right along with the bees.  Sounds like food and shelter provided.
I don't believe I have ever heard of sugar grease patties before.

Offline Jen

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Re: Sugar Grease Patties For Mite Control
« Reply #6 on: January 16, 2018, 12:59:35 pm »
Baker, I've heard of grease patties several years ago. There a several recipes on youtube. Grease patties are for treachea mites. I still don't know how it works.

I make sugar cakes which are simply sugar, water, spearmint oil and lemon grass oil.

Grease patties are Crisco, honey, sugar and wintergreen essential oil.

It's the menthol that 'evidently' kills the treachea mite. So isn't it the same thing? Spearmint oil in my cakes, or wintergreen in grease patties?

Why the Crisco?



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Offline Jen

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Re: Sugar Grease Patties For Mite Control
« Reply #7 on: January 16, 2018, 01:02:56 pm »
Apis, then if the bees eat the Crisco with wintergreen, and it kills the treachea mites in the throat of the bees, what happens to the dead treachea mites? do the bees cough them up? I mean there are thousands of these mites in each throat of the bees... scratching head.


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Offline apisbees

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Re: Sugar Grease Patties For Mite Control
« Reply #8 on: January 16, 2018, 05:48:22 pm »
First the bees do not breath through their throats, they do not have lungs, but take air in to the trachea tubes Their are 2 and they are air tubes that take Oxygen directly to the bees muscles. They do not have a blood to transfer oxygen like mammals. Acarapis woodi Known to beekeepers as the Tracheal mite occupies the trachea of the bees, breeds there and while it develops the mite defecates in the trachea. This effects the bees ability to get oxygen to the muscles, causing the bees live to be shortened. The reason you do not heat of the trachea mite much is that with the introduction of Varroa with it being a much bigger mite, beekeepers needed to use way stronger chemicals for treatment. All the chemical treatments that kill varroa also easily kills Acarapis woodi. So when we treat for varroa we have also treated for the trachea mites if chemicals where used.
If you are treating Varroa by natural non chemical methods, by brood breaks of drone brood culling. Then the trachea mite is not being controlled and another means of mite control needs to be applied to control these mites so they do not build up and kill the colony. The damage done to the bees by the mites is what happens to the winter bees, the bees that need to have an extended life to get the colony through to spring build up.
Grease patties are a non chemical treatment that worked for trachea mites, it was easy, safe to use, didn't need as much government approval as it was all human consumption approved products went into making the patties. It kills the mite by suffocating it. The bees would try to clean up the grease patty by collecting the sugar out of it and in the process would spread a fine film of oil on themselves, The mites would also get the fine oil coating on them but due to their size (need a 40 X 10 power microscope to see them) They wood be killed.
Think of it as you put a small amount of bubble bath in your bath and soak in it with no ill health effect. You put the same amount of a soap in a spray bottle and use it on your plants and it kills aphid's. but we can still eat the product that it was sprayed on. It is concentration to body mass.
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Offline Jen

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Re: Sugar Grease Patties For Mite Control
« Reply #9 on: January 16, 2018, 09:45:51 pm »
Excellent lesson Apis! This is the exactly the answer I wanted to give this newbee friend of mine. Thanks!
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Offline neillsayers

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Re: Sugar Grease Patties For Mite Control
« Reply #10 on: January 17, 2018, 10:27:18 am »
I know from experience that pollen patties are SHB buffet. I have never used grease patties but I would think it would attract and feed SHB. That said, I came across this recipe not long ago.

This is a recipe for a wintergreen based grease patty that is supposed to kill SHB.
http://rnoel.50megs.com/2000/beetle.htm
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