You can purchase a powdered sugar shaker for varroa mites in the store, but I preferred to make a simple one at home.

Here are the instructions.

The jar can be either glass or plastic. You can use mason jars or any type of jar with a wide lid.

Depending on how many hives you want to treat you need a jar no smaller than 1 pint.

For the illustration I used a 1 pint ice cream jar with a plastic lid. The flavor was Belgian Chocolate, but that doesn’t matter.

A 1 pint jar seems is usually good enough to treat 2 hives.

Tools needed:

• Drill
• Small drill bit
• You want to drill multiple small holes in the top of the jar. If the lid is metal, it will require the appropriate drill bit.

Powdered Sugar:

You can buy powdered sugar from the grocery store, but commercial powdered sugar often contains corn starch. So, I prefer to buy organic cane sugar and grind it myself.

Please note: Do Not use brown sugar, as it may contain up to 10% molasses, which is unsuitable for the bees.

I used an old coffee grinder and it took less than 5 minutes to grind enough powdered sugar for a 1 pint jar.

Depending on how many supers you have on a colony, you will need about 1 cup of powdered sugar per hive.

Good luck and Happy Beekeeping!