# Alternative mite management



## Ezozit (Oct 30, 2020)

Looking for various techniques to manage mites. 
Has anyone had experience with with a fogger and mineral oil?

Any experience with fogger and Grain alcohol and Oxalic acid?
Here is a demo


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## wildbranch2007 (Dec 3, 2008)

Oxalic Acid Dribble and Sublimation Updates - Scientific Beekeeping


Update 28 Oct 2018 Beekeeper Nick Kingan let me know that there’s a nice livestock syringe available from Tractor Supply that can be adjusted to dispense 5 mL per squeeze. I find the squeezing of this sort of syringe to be tiring to my hand if I’m treating a large number of hives, but […]




scientificbeekeeping.com





There are YouTubes being circulated recommending using a heat fogger to apply oxalic acid. Retired chemist Dick Cryberg, who is a very sharp guy whose observations I deeply respect, posted the following to Bee-L:
I tried fogging with 10% oxalic acid dissolved in water. I fogged ten five over five deep nucs once a week with 0.6 g of oxalic acid
dihydrate for each five deep for eight consecutive weeks this summer. I had ten nucs untreated side by side for controls. The single highest
after treatment mite count was from a treated nuc determined by alcohol wash at 3%. I saw exactly zero evidence that I killed any significant number of mites. Overall the treated hives and controls had equivalent mite counts. All were at 0 to a bit over 1% mites at the start. I dosed as high as 2g/ five deep nuc and showed no adverse effects other than a few burned bees that hit the fogger screen. Fogging ran from mid June
to late July. All were treated earlier in the spring to drive mite counts to about zero with apivar. The slow build up by early August is because I run Minnesota Hygienic queens which do a fair job of containing mite populations.I was pretty careful in the experiment. I spent several hours fooling with the fogger to figure out how to deliver a consistent dose. I had to drill a hole in the top of the handle and push down the trigger fully down with a screw driver after each shot to get consistent volume each time. I also had to pull the trigger as fast as possible to get consistent volumes. I showed, by capturing and analyzing the fog that oxalic was surviving the fogging experience at least partly intact. My capture was under 100% and analysis showed a recovery of 60% so I feel was I was not
decomposing enough to matter.I also waited 20 seconds between trigger pulls to allow full heat recovery in the coil. Even then a lot of what came out the spout was liquid that ended up on the bottom of the nuc. I found the process tedious and not really all that fast at over three minutes per nuc each treatment.I have seen the you tube vids and seen much discussion on fogging. I am the first, as far as I can tell, to ever do before and after mite counts and include controls of any type. At this point I view all such claims as pure snake oil of the usual value that snake oil typically has but am open to being proven wrong. I am a bit leary of firing alcohol due to flammability althou no one has reported a fire issue. [I would expect a fog of alcohol in air to be highly explosive, but I don’t have a heat fogger with which to test. If any reader has tested this, please let me know]

Also, oxalic acid will react very rapidly with alcohol make the ester and the ester will very rapidly decarboxylate at temps as low as 100 deg C to ethyl formate which is not going to kill mites. If you are going to fog ethanol solutions you probably need to make fresh solution just prior to fogging to avoid the inevitable ester formation that is going to happen on storage even at room temp. This chemistry is not a problem in water solution but needs to be considered in alcohol or particularly glycerin which some are using.


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## Oldtimer (Jul 4, 2010)

Ezozit said:


> Has anyone had experience with with a fogger and mineral oil?


Yes. A few years ago at the bee club I was a member of a guy did a demonstration of it. The huge cloud of vapor looked very impressive, the guy was a convincing speaker, and at the end he was mobbed by so many people wanting to know where to get a fogger, that the club decided to put in a bulk order and a large number of people got one.

Over the next year or so these people enthusiastically blew huge clouds of vapor into their hives, then a day later would excitedly see dead mites on their drop boards. But what they didn't know was it was only a tiny fraction of the total mite population. Over the next couple of years a large number of hives were lost, and it gradually began to sink in, mineral oil fogging doesn't work. Those foggers are all gathering dust now, buried at the back of peoples sheds. 

Don't waste your time.


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## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

I will gladly sell you an almost brand new Burgess fogger real cheap. Do not waste your time, money, or bees on this treatment method. Been there, done that, got a T- shirt to prove it.


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## HarryVanderpool (Apr 11, 2005)

Food grade mineral oil fogging was talked about so much that Beesource had an entire forum devoted to it at one time.
Varroa can be a very frustrating problem and I think walking up to a hive with a great big cannon and blasting away made folks feel better......
....for a short time.
Fogger manufacturers had a hay-day 
Unfortunately, so did the mites


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## joebeewhisperer (May 13, 2020)

The older gentleman I buy equipment from uses one, but I think he also uses formic acid (in some form) when it cools down. I almost bought one several times but decided to go a different route for now. You will see recipes for glycerin and other solvents. Glycerin is used in vape juice and will produce an impressive fog, but I think you'd really have to stay on your math to make sure you weren't just vaping them. Consistency of the dose would be difficult (me thinks).


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