Pine needles, shredded cardboard (pet bedding), cotton boll, corrugated cardboard, bay leaves, newspaper, pine cones, muslin, straw, palm debris.
Tired of buying compressed smoker fuel, I looked for alternative fuels that would work better and were available around me. I have used pine needles before, but after some research I found oodles of natural materials ripe for the picking in my backyard.
Some botanicals that you could use for smoker fuel- hydrangea, eucalyptus, orange peels, cotton bolls, lavender, bay leaves
The variety of materials that you can use is only limited by your environment. Take a walk on your property and I am sure you can find at least four or five different organics. Also, check your house. String, cotton and muslin, brown paper bags, and newspaper are all appropriate.
Dried lavender has a wonderful scent when lit
List of possible materials
- Bark
- Pine Cones
- Cotton Fabric
- Wood Chips
- Baling Twine
- Brown Paper
- Cardboard
- Burlap
- Newspaper
- Wood Shavings
- Wood Chips
- Dried Lavender
- Dried Flowers & Herbs
- Eucalytpus
- Palm Spathes & Mesh
- Citrus Peels
- Cotton Bolls
- Cotton String
- Egg Cartons
- Straw
- Pet Bedding (shredded cardboard)
Scientists have found that smoke from burning certain organics contains natural chemicals that control honey bee mites. An alternative to using chemicals to control varroa mites, the domestic honeybee’s worst threat, is always welcome as I organically maintain my hives. The most promising are dried grapefruit leaves and creosote bush, a woody perennial. Creosote bush smoke and grapefruit leaf smoke drove 90 to 100 percent of the mites off bees after a one-minute cage test, according to scientists. You can read more about that study in Smoking Out Bee Mites.
A nicely stocked smoker will last for a couple of hours as long as you tend to it, adding oxygen and fuel
Since I don’t live in the West (creosote bush) or the South (grapefruit leaves), I use what I have here in the mid-Atlantic region of Maryland. Tons of pine needles, pine cones, and wood chips litter the ground and I have ample supplies of them. I also dried a lot of flowers from summer, mostly lavender and have plenty to spare. So figure out what’s abundant in your yard or in your house and put it together into packets. Herbs that I would normally throw onto my grill fire, like dried sage, mint, lavender, rosemary, and scented geranium are all used to make up packets. Tying these herbs up into bundles for stuffing into your smoker is a winter job and I am stocking up. Eucalyptus leaves are highly flammable and have a strong cough drop scent — they are great for getting your smoker lit. Even though Eucalyptus is not native for me, I used it as a dried flower in arrangements so have it on hand.
You don’t want to produce noxious smoke so stick to plants that are commonly eaten, used in skin care, made into home-care products, or distilled into essential oils. Be careful to avoid plastics, and inorganic substances.
Crumble your organics into the center of a muslin square
Gather the muslin square with twine to make a packet
I usually use two packets per beehive inspection, and I keep a bag of loose, dry pine needles and torn pieces of egg cartons with me as supplemental fuel. Placing the packets directly onto a bed of pine needles in the smoker chamber, I light the mixture with a propane torch until it is burning briskly. It usually takes a few squeezes of the bellows to get the flames to catch. Don’t skimp on the oxygen! Once you have a good flame, continue to feed the fire with progressively larger fuel to get a good hot fire going — just like a good campfire! For lighting a smoker, see my post on Smoker Know How.
Place your packet on a beds of pine needles before lighting
15 Comments
do you have a link the research article about smokers driving the mites off of bees?
-Thanks
I found it in an USDA article from the Agricultural Service in Texas and it was written in 1997. The link is https://www.ars.usda.gov/news-events/news/research-news/1997/smoking-out-bee-mites/ and the smoke “drove” them off within 30 seconds. The scientist tested 40 different botanicals. Mesquite or grapefruit leaves are not an option for me as neither is available for me in Maryland. But this is amazing! I can’t find any follow up tests or studies.
You stated that “Creosote bush smoke and grapefruit leaf smoke drove 90 to 100 percent of the mites off bees after a one-minute cage test ACCORDING TO SCIENTISTS.” (Upper case emphasis added by me.) Can you give me a source for that study? I’m not doubting you for a minute. In fact if you’ve ever been downwind from a creosote fire, this makes perfect sense. I wouldn’t stick around either, so I don’t blame the mites for fleeing. But how did this smoke treatment affect the bees? Was there any die-off? I am really interested to read that study.
Bruce, I found it in an USDA article from the Agricultural Service in Texas and it was written in 1997. The link is https://www.ars.usda.gov/news-events/news/research-news/1997/smoking-out-bee-mites/ and the smoke “drove” them off within 30 seconds. The scientist tested 40 different botanicals. Mesquite or grapefruit leaves are not an option for me as neither is available for me in Maryland. But this is amazing! I can’t find any follow up tests or studies.
A bit of Googling brought up the following:
https://agresearchmag.ars.usda.gov/1997/aug/mitesmoke
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/287597514_Biological_activity_of_grapefruit_leaf_burning_residue_extract_and_isolated_compounds_on_Varroa_jacobsoni
Hope this helps.
thanks!!
When using my smoker I find it fiddly to light my smoker, and sometimes keep it alight. I have put a hole on the side at the bottom, about an inch up, to allow me access to the fuel to be lit, and use a self lighting butane torch, the flame of which I poke thru the rhs of the burner. It only needs to be less than 13 mm on 1/2 inch. I also modified the bottom support using a threaded rod of come quarter of an inch some sic incheslong attached to the fuel support, which allows me to clear the whole unit of burnt material and keeps the support the right was around as it can drop upside down in the burner when placing it in there.
The extra oxygen the burner gets, allows a more sustainable burn and the cork fitted to the smoke outlet stops it smoking quickly as well…attached to a kind of thick cord… Theres no fule like eucalyptus or pine, but I wil ltry the alternatives…for mites if they ever reach Australia..
Great tip! I never thought about adding another hole!
interesting
My impression is that newspaper shreds burn pretty hot and fast … and I believe many of the inks are petroleum based…
I looked it up. Most of the modern inks are soy or water based. If anything, the glossy inserts are petroleum based.
(My farm website is ‘under construction’; so that’s my business one.)
Great article!! Thank you for sharing your knowledge! I have never tried any of the above; but have saved herbs, and pine needles abound here; so I’ll make up some of these bags asap!!
As an aside:
I have been using sumac bobs (one or two per smoker). They burn slowly and well, and are purported to calm the bees. I don’t wear a suit (just a ‘bug hat’ and light clothing), so it must be true! When I am removing honey supers; I add some leafy material, along with a couple small buds of cannabis sativa. It is also known for calming effects; and I have never been stung honeying! Also, handily coming along at around the same time in the fall. 🙂
I haven’t heard about Sumac, but need to try that. Thanks for reading!
Do you have any idea where I might buy creosote bush(es) for mite control.
Michael Head
mfhead@walkerhead.com
On line, I googled it and Etsy has several vendors with it.