Help Oxalic Acid.

[Little_John]

Claiming that applying oxalic is a varroa treatment and not a bee treatment seems a cop-out to me. The targetting might be reasonable but in essence the only difference between treating with oxalic acid and, say, antibiotics for foulbrood, is the size of the pathogen. Mites are a bit bigger than bacteria. I think all treatments should be kept to a minimum which, in many cases, means no treatment at all. 3 treatments a week apart would not suit my style of beekeeping at all.

Those who give antibiotics do so in such a way that they are ingested (otherwise they wouldn't work).
Dribbling OA in sugar solution encourages the bees to ingest OA.
Vapourisation is a topical application, where ingestion is highly unlikely.

If you can see no difference between these techniques, I would ask you not to consider drinking sun-tan lotion, as it's not really intended for internal use ...

If 3 treatments are too much then just give one .. in winter.

Or give none at all (many beeks are now adopting this philosophy) - but be ready with the kit just in case varroa should suddenly flare up in your apiary. The alternative is to - maybe one day - watch thousands of bees die in front of you, in the full knowledge that you could have done something to prevent it. There are sound reasons why people wisely install fire extinguishers and sprinkler systems in their properties.

[Jon]

Or give none at all (many beeks are now adopting this philosophy) - but be ready with the kit just in case varroa should suddenly flare up in your apiary. The alternative is to - maybe one day - watch thousands of bees die in front of you, in the full knowledge that you could have done something to prevent it. There are sound reasons why people wisely install fire extinguishers and sprinkler systems in their properties.

Best practice is to be proactive and monitor varroa levels by taking a sample of 300 bees and then doing a sugar shake or alcohol wash to calculate the percentage of mite infestation.
You can then decide whether to treat or not without being caught out by any mite level 'flare up'

[Jimbo]

I use the trickle method purely on health and safety grounds. If you were to do a risk assessment on the chemical you would find that oxalic vapour is more of a hazardous to the operator than oxalic acid in liquid form. If you want to look at more of the hazards of working with Oxalic acid then go to the Sigma Aldrich Biochemical web site and look up their safety sheets

[Rosie]

Vapourisation is a topical application, where ingestion is highly unlikely.

I would expect the vapour to condense on every surface of the hive, although preferentially on the coldest ones. These surfaces probably include every crook and nanny on the bee's surface: eyes between the claws, mouthparts etc. How do they get it all off again? How do they get it off the hive and cell walls? Do they use a wire brush and vacuum cleaner or do they lick it off?

[mbc]

, here's a diagram to be getting on with.


Although brazing would be best, JB Weld is good enough - as it's rated for 260 deg C continuous, or 300 intermittent.

Thanks for that. Whats JB weld ?

Edit: Ahh! I just googled it and its a bit like araldite, would that transfer the heat suitably ?