Oxalic Acid 99% vs Wood Bleach

[Jen]

I'm helping a friend set up her hives, and one of them is now getting full of mites. I told her that when she notices mites that I would help her with my OA vaporizer first so she could learn and get her own set up. She jumped the gun and bought a vaporizer and wood bleach from Mann Lake. That's all fine, except here on the forum we have discussed wood bleach as opposed to 99% OA.

I need to remember why we don't use wood bleach so I can tell her, additives I think. There is a thread on this subject as well.

[Mikey N.C.]

I'm a newbee i thought that bleaching wood was a disguise.  For using oav, before it was legal to use. I'm probably wrong though.

[neillsayers]

Jen,

The Savogran wood bleach our hardware sells is a 99% powder concentrate of oxalic acid. Don't know what Mann Lake sells but I'm thinking oxalic acid is oxalic acid. It's possible that the only legal product is the one sold by Brushy Mountain as they went through the approval process.

[CBT]

Oxalic acid dihydrate (not dehydrate; oxalic acid dihyrate is 71.4% pure oxalic acid) can be purchased in any paint department as “wood bleach.” It usually comes in a 12 oz plastic tub. Check the ingredients label, or call the manufacturer to make sure there are no added ingredients. It can also be purchased much more cheaply in bulk (less than $1/lb) from chemical supply houses.



Oxalic acid can be purchased as “Wood Bleach” in most hardware stores, or from a chemical supply house much more cheaply per pound. The $50 sack contains enough to treat 25,000 10-frame colonies!

[Jen]

That's what I remember CBT, that anything under 99% OA is filled with additives and can harm the bees. Thanks!

[Jen]

What would happen if the dehydrate 71.4% - wood bleach, was used by accident in the OA vaporizer? Would it harm the bees that first time?

[tedh]

I don't know.  Did it?  Sorry, I couldn't help myself!  Ted

[neillsayers]

The product sold by Mann Lake is dihydrate, 95-100%
www.savogran.com/pdfs/Wood_Bleach_MS.pdf

Hope this is helpful.

[Jen]

Okay Ted You Silly Head!  I didn't use the 71% wood bleach, but a friend/beek of mine is using it on her bees and I didn't find out until a couple days ago. So I was wondering if the 71% will have any long term effects on the bees.

[CBT]

I would think it depends on what is the 29% unknown.

[LazyBkpr]

The problem is we don't know what the other ingredients are in that 71% mix, and YES, it could be harmful.   Go to Amazon.com and order 99.6% pure OA, or go to one of the bee supply places and order it to be legal, if that is important to you.

[Jen]

I talked to my friend today and after some explaining about that 30% unknown ingredients, she ordered the 99.6 from Amazon. I'm happy now

[LazyBkpr]

Awesome!