At the height of summer, the hive was gangbusters. Twenty of the originally bare wood bars, were loaded with brood, pollen, honey and bees. The mini city bustled with activity and the nature of the hive was gentle and content. “Don’t relax,” came Jimmy’s warning. Have you taken a mite count?” The fact was, I hadn’t. The invasive and calamitous varroa destructor is, next to American Foulbrood, a beekeeper’s worst enemy. The varroa is a tiny pin-prick parasite that lodges on the bodies of adult bees, but also lays it’s eggs on the developing pupa, sucking the life right out of them and leaving bees weak and prone to infections. If mites are not controlled, they can wipe out an otherwise healthy hive in weeks. Since I am a firm believer in the healing powers of nature, I refused to use chemical treatments on my bees. “That’s ok,” Jimmy encouraged, “powder sugar blast em.”

The theory behind powder sugar blasting is marvelous. Because the mites cling to the bees like barnacles on a boat, they need a powerful push to be removed. The application is not like the  gentle sprinkling of talcum powder on a baby’s bare bottom, it is more akin to the explosive dousing of a fire hose on a burning building. Each frame is dynamited with sugar creating a billowing blizzard. The residual effect of this snow storm is white, lace covered combs and thousands of waddling snow bunnies. The detonated mites being jarred loose, fall to the floor of the blasting box and as the sugar coated bees, in an effort to rid themselves of this blanket preen, they ingest some of the organic sugar and knock off more mites. Once all of the frames have been treated, the box is filled with water, allowing the dead mites to float to the surface and be counted. A count of ten to twenty is good to normal. A count of 50 or more, a serious problem. This entire process, whether the count is high or low, must be repeated a week later and again in the fall, because the newly emerging bees may already be saddled with the deadly parasites.

My count turned out to be very low, which in turn made me very happy. Rosie and the girls had seemed only mildly disturbed by the demolition, but it had been rather humorous to witness the hive’s transformation from golden brown and honey yellow to iceberg white with bees resembling yogurt covered raisins scurrying in every direction. The end result of sugar blasting however, is a true win-win. Although all of the mites are not eradicated, the environment remains green, the hive stays toxin free and best of all, the honeybees get a sweet treat and a bug bath….  all at the same time.