The Dowda Method

I forgot to post a picture of what it looked like when I dusted for mites the other day.  Using powdered sugar isn't really a mite treatment, per se.  It's more a method to help reduce the mites a bit.  The sugar helps keep the mites from sticking to the bees while encouraging more grooming.  The photo on the bottom is the plastic corrugated sheet I inserted under the screened bottom board to see how many mites dropped.  Not all specks on the sheet are mites.  Since I have a screened bottom board a lot of the junk, trash and debris falls out the screen at the bottom onto the ground.  Inserting the sheet caught mites, but it also caught a lot of stuff that wasn't mites.  And those buggers are small...so I had to do a lot of squinty eyes trying to  pinpoint them!