Oxalic Acid Pan Evaporator 12 Volt

[busybeephilip]

Next year I'll probably be using Apitraz 500 from the same supplier.

OK till you get a resistant population of which there are reports of this happening.

[The Drone Ranger]

one point - Lining sublimators with foil sounds like a good idea, but you will get a reduced heating effect leading to reduced vaporization rate, better just to wash or scrape it out after use. Also, if the linning is not a perfect fit you might find it hard to remove the foil due to spillage and end up with a real mess. just my opinion.

Sugar makes a mess right enough so I suppose a lot of people might go back to the insecticidal strips for a while till the situation gets sorted out
Not sure that's the direction the VMD should be moving beekeeping though ?

[The Drone Ranger]

Just had a look - a week since 3rd OA treatment and a significantly reduced mite fall, had a quick look under the mic, could not see any crystals on the mites but then after 7 days maybe that would be expected,

I think there were still crystals 3 weeks after treating Phillip but it was 8 or 9 years ago now so I can't swear to it
What will be different at the moment is the amount of grooming because as you say the bees have been very active right through October
In the Winter all the mites are out on the bees and the bees themselves will take a lot longer to remove all the oxalic crystals (dust)

I'm going to have a look at some varroa myself in December when they get treated
Hopefully the burning sugar in the apibiolax won't do the bees any harm

[fatshark]

The bullish attitude to forcing full compliance on the use of oxalic acid was not coming from the VMD but the strongest voice in that direction was that representing an organisation purporting to represent 'British' beekeepers. I was disappointed by that. Our loyalties should not be to companies that have paid out to get their product registered in the UK.

That's very disappointing. Understandable (perhaps) if it was a superior product, but in my view it is not - based on side-by-side real-world usage following the instructions provided by the manufacturer. You'd have hoped that the British beekeeping organisation might have viewed the continued access to an inexpensive and effective treatment might have been beneficial for bee health, rather than increasing cost 1000-fold* for something that's no safer, no more effective and demonstrably less easy to administer. I wonder why they were so keen to force compliance?

I think the foil liner might just about work with the Varrox-type machines which are essentially passive. I'm less sure it would be suitable for the Sublimox or equivalent where you drop the crystals directly into the pan by inversion of the machine. Unless there was very good contact between the foil and the pan there's likely to be poor heat transfer.

Oh well ... I've tried using up some old OA bleaching wax**

Biowar is Amitraz by another name isn't it? I don't suppose the Brexit discussions are going to feature continued cascade down access to this sort of this as a high priority. I've still to see well-documented evidence of Amitraz resistance (but would like to if any readers have it).


** Blatant exaggeration care of "Trump-stats" ... actual comparison is about 0.5p/dose for Oxalic acid vs. 28p/dose for Api-Bioxal, buying both in bulk.
* don't bother

[Pete L]

I wonder why they were so keen to force compliance?

Could be something to do with a [senior person in the BBKA] assisting the makers of Apibioxal to bring the product to market!

[mbc]

Could be something to do with a [senior person in the BBKA] assisting the makers of Apibioxal to bring the product to market!

Shameless

[prakel]

Shameless

+1. Not much else can be said.

[alancooper]

outside temp in the shade 1 meter above ground is 7.8C (using a Hanna K thermocouple thermometer HI9043) and bees are flying !!!

It was close to 8C here the other day and calm - also there was much bee activity and ivy pollen loads being brought in (10am to 4pm). Activity at low temps is related to low wind-speed. September weather was not good but the mild, calm-ish Oct with quite a bit of sun, coinciding well with much ivy flowering, brought a great deal of honey - yummy.

[busybeephilip]

Perhaps not post in the correct place but... has anyone tried OA / glycerin cardboard strips ? http://www.bbka.org.uk/members/forum.php?t=7965 the method has also been published in apidology .....

Apidologie
July 2016, Volume 47, Issue 4, pp 596–605
A new formulation of oxalic acid for Varroa destructor control applied in Apis mellifera colonies in the presence of brood

The authors claim 93% efficient WOW !!!!

[Pete L]

The authors claim 93% efficient WOW !!!!

Interesting, I like it , but less so when reading the last post in the other forum that was linked.

cardboard strip with O.A. during winter

Dear Giovanni and Ernst

Hope you are fine !

We have passed winter with good results of our Cardboard Strips Soaked into a Solution of Oxalic Acid in Glycerol (Food Grade).

We used it as we described.

We have had very good results adding strips in March up to April 20 with good temperatures. These colonies arrived at the beginning of the current season without varroa.

BUT we received several advices from beekeepers which found different levels of bee death because adding strips in coolest areas of the South Hemisphere at the end of April or during May. Then it is necessary not to add strips close to winter season.

IT SEEMS that with low temperatures the bees are sucking the wetted strips looking for water and they dying.

Another reason not to add strips close to winter to late in autumn is that the strips will restrict the brood area like a wall at the beginning of the next beekeeping season. Then if we check there are not varroa in the colonies at the end of winter it is better to wait up to the time to add suppers to add some strips if it is necessary.

Regarding other essays, some friends in the South of Chile they are ussing it right now. We are waiting also for the results of some studies carried out recently in Italy for a couple of friends there.

Best regards

Fernando

http://teca.fao.org/discussion/varro...thods-fight-it