I clean the cell cup holders once a year by putting them in a bowl and pouring boiling water over them.
You don't have to get them spotless.
During the season i just reuse them.
It is actually better for these to have a bit of wax and a bee smell which is why the graft frame usually goes in a day before the grafts are added so that the cups and cup holders smell right.
You can reuse the cell cup inserts by soaking them in hot water and scraping out cocoon debris with a Q tip but it is a pita to clean then and it only costs about £4 for 100 anyway.
I gently scrape most of the propolis from my apideas and fumigate them for a week with 80% acetic acid, likewise the frames.
warm water would do no harm but near boiling would melt them.
haven't tried washing soda.
Stack them up in a plastic bin and put the acetic acid at the top as the fumes are heavier than air.
Make sure it is well sealed and in the shed rather than the house.
The frames can get difficult to remove from the apideas by the end of the season as more and more propolis builds up.
I reuse some frames but bear in mind that it is hard to fill apideas with bees if the frames are already drawn out.
This is how I clean the frames with acetic acid - yet another use for a correx box!:
cleaning apidea frames.jpg
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