1st of 3 Oxalic Treatments Done For Winter Prep

[Jen]

A question for those of you who use oxalic acid treatments for mite control. I have four hives, but many of you may have 40 hives. Do you go thru the process of taping off the hive of any openings or crevices that may let the OA vapor seep out?

[LazyBkpr]

Rag for the bottom entrance and tape over the top entrance. I dont go any more in depth than that..  I re use the piece of tape as I go along..

[GLOCK]

I use a Rag for the bottom entrance and that's it .
Just make sure you get a good vapor.

 OAV works great .

[Jen]

Hi Glock, do you have a Varrox or Heilyser vaporizer?  We have a Heilyser. I don't want to smell it in the air so I tape and seal my hives.

[Yankee11]

Same as Glock here, T-shirt over entrance.

I got 13 treatments from a single battery charge this past weekend. 2.5 minutes each treatment.

[riverbee]

" I don't want to smell it in the air so I tape and seal my hives."

....LOL .....you don't want to smell it jen..... we don't want to smell it and we tape and seal our hives in?!.........
wonder really how all of this affects our bees.  mite treatments are ironic, what we treat for mites, not to mention wearing gloves or other that protect our skin from the contact of the chemical?  just saying.  i have never treated with OA, but have treated with other mite treatments. amazes me, the directions to protect ourselves from any contact with the 'chemical'....

anyone understand what i am sayin?

i am not saying this to be negative, i am just saying it's just craziness......

[Jen]

Thinking here on how to put this...  Now I'm not on the defense so don't put that into what I'm saying. I'm always up for learning.

    I couldn't agree more, Riv, about what we should or should not do to keep bees alive and prospering nowa days. It's hard to concieve what we have already subjected them to already. It's the same with our pets. If I didn't put a tic collar on my dog, which is loaded with chemicals, we wouldn't be able to take her wood cutting with us, or for walks in the woodsy park in our area.     

I don't have the hygenic grooming bees that remove the mites from each other. I don't have Russians. I have your typical everyday euro bees that are susceptible to everything that flies by. After a ton of reading I do think I've made the right choice with oxalic acid. It's the least harmful, the quickest acting, and there is no collateral damage in the days to come.

I sure hope I'm doing the right thing......  :eusa_think:

[pistolpete]

I will be embarking on my first OA treatments in a week or two.  I bought the full face mask for it, cause I don't want to take any chances with burning my lungs.  My lungs have taken enough abuse from concrete dust over the years.    Just curious what people use for batteries.  I'm thinking just go to the re-cycling drop off and charge up a beat up car battery?  I only have a few hives to treat.

[Barbarian]

Does the OA get the mites in the sealed cells ?

It seems that most UK keeps using OA, go for the trickle treatment using solution.

I hope to routinely treat my hives with solution in December.

[Perry]

The Oxalic does not penetrate sealed brood cells.
Oxalic is an acid, not a chemical.
Surprisingly, the Varrox anyway, uses more power than I had intially thought. I use one of those car jumping eliminator boxes, and I can only get 6 to 8 hives done with it before it is spent. LazyBkpr uses his truck battery while his truck is running, and I can understand why, it is what I will be doing (to the hives I can get my truck close to anyway).

[kebee]

 I use a lawn mower battery it is lighter and I can get 4 hives with no problem, I use a small battery charger to get it back up usually within a 8 hr period.

Ken

[LazyBkpr]

OA cant burn your lungs, because you CANT inhale it.   Can you get a whif of it?   I would assume it is possible if you were not careful.  after  XHundred treatments  I have never had a whif of it..  I have been TOLD by those who have, that the moment you get that whif your closed down and coughing..    In order for it to harm you, or your lungs, you would have to ingest, swallow or breath in over an ounce of the stuff..
  After having used it so many times I no longer fret or worry. I don't even use the rubber gloves any more. If it gets on my hands it starts to itch after a while, I wipe it off, problem solved.
   MOST plants HAVE  OA  in them. Your body can metabolize it in small amounts.
   Liquid OA shortens the life of bees. The dribble method is NOT recommended for winter bees because it kills them prematurely.  The dribble method uses a sugar mixture that the bees must/do swallow when they clean it off each other and themselves.

  is OA healthy for the bees? Is it the best method to use?
   I honestly cant tell you..   We may find out its the WORST thing we can do in the long run, but at this point, I see less problems. Less effect on the bees, less reaction from them during, and after treatment, and Less mites than after using hopguard, which is supposedly an organic treatment as well.

   I see folks on other forums railing against OAV about how dangerous it is etc... and I am completely dumbfounded by their total belief in what they are saying..  Well...  if it is so much more dangerous than the other methods, why do I have to protect myself so well while applying those other treatments?  If I get OA on me I have no worries, I wipe it off..  can that be said for all that other sticky stuff your putting into the hives? So I will try to put it in a politically correct context...
   If you are part of producing another chemical to make MONEY on, or you just prefer not to see the truth.. Perhaps you do not like change?
   I am OK with that. Just dont try to make "ME" believe how bad OA is, because I have been using it, and I know better.  The way I see it.. its like voting for a president..  You choose the lesser of the evils.  At this point, I have not found ANY Evil in OAV.. but then, I try not to be an idiot when I use any chemical.

[Yankee11]

I use a marine deep cycle battery and just did 13 hives on 1 charge Saturday.

Got it a Sams.

And yes. while testing I got w whif, and you are not inhaling that stuff. Like getting a whif of amonia.

[camero7]

I also have done a considerable # of hives with OA vapor. I long ago quit sealing the hives or blocking the entrance. I just wait until the vapor comes out the top entrance before pulling the vaporizer. I get good mite kills with this method and it speeds up the process considerably. I use 2 vaporizers and have one cooling and reloading while the other is running. I use a commercial battery pack I bought from Enterprise car rental when the upgraded and sold the old ones. I can do around 50 hives before it needs recharging. I also never wear a mask. I get the occasional whiff of the vapor and you won't stay for a second one. However, I have noted no problems from these sniffs. I believe the cautions around the vapor are way overblown. I do use other treatments in the spring and use the vapor 3-4 X about 5 days apart in the fall. I'm done with treatments this fall.

[Jen]

Pete- "I'm thinking just go to the re-cycling drop off and charge up a beat up car battery?  I only have a few hives to treat.

    I only have 4 hives so oa works nicely for me, although Scott has 40 hives and he like it as well.

     Each time I do an application I do a tester run to make sure that the acid is being vapored correctly. If your getting a recycled battery, do the test run and make sure there is enough juice in that battery to vaporize the acid in 2 1/2 minutes 

[Jen]

Good testimonies! I have gotten a whiff, and like Yankee it is a bit like ammonia. It was suggested to me from a friend in Denmark that says that OA is the number 1 choice in their land. And it's so inexpensive that the beeks there can help other beeks for just penny's until the new beek acquires their own vaporizer.

[GLOCK]

Jen I have the Heilyser vaporizer the Varrox looks better made  but mine works fine. I use my truck battery and a dolly .
I just wait till the OA starts to vapor and slide it in and count to around 60  flip the switch to off and walk away for 3 min.
Then I go to the next on.
These are some of the mite drops for last year just crazy.

I have done alcohol wash's through out this year and no mite's.
I plan on this SUNDAY to treat a few hive's with OAV just to see if I get a mite dope.
My bee's where really strong this year and all are heavy and getting ready for winter.
As I see it I'm sticking with OAV it works.

[Perry]

Those pics are about all the evidence one should need to show how effective Oxalic is. 
I have finished up with my MAQS, and will monitor for efficacy and any that need "finishing" will probably get a vapour treatment of Oxalic.
 

[Jen]

GLOCK- "I plan on this SUNDAY to treat a few hive's with OAV just to see if I get a mite dope.

      Yep Nice Pics! That's the kind of drop I get as well. But I want to say that, it could be...  that you find mites in one hive, and right next door you don't find even one, but that doesn't mean that they're not in there.

       I can't remember how many hives you have, 10 maybe?.... I have 4 so it's just as easy to treat all of them and be sure they are all clean.

[GLOCK]

.

       I can't remember how many hives you have, 10 maybe?....
I have 32