# Check out this Vaporizer



## greif (Nov 9, 2010)

hi
I am new so excuse question.

what is the acid for and isn't it harmful

thanks
gary


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## G B (Nov 6, 2009)

Any Idea who sells that style vaporizer?


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## AmericasBeekeeper (Jan 24, 2010)

Oxalic acid is for Varroa mites and beekeepers like to put lots of chemicals in hives these days. I am from the 60s so they have to be dying before they get any foreign substance in my hive. Foreign is everything they would not have naturally. If you drench bees with water or sucrocide, that is not natural.


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## Grant (Jun 12, 2004)

Oxalic acid is an organic acid. It's a wood bleach for those who refinish furniture. It's very effective against varroa mites as a drench with sugar syrup. It's customarily applied during a broodless period, i.e. winter. It is harmless to the bees.

The vaporized oxalic acid is still a curiosity to me. Once the vapors cool, which would be rather quickly in the winter hive, the crystals condense. Still effective in this state?

I'm still pondering this one. 

Grant
Jackson, MO


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## Michael Palmer (Dec 29, 2006)

I had terrible results with vaporized oxalic. Vaporized for 3 years, so I think i gave the procedure a good test...under my conditions.

Firts year, I vaporized in November when temps were above 35 and most colonies were broodless. Saw high mite loads early summer next year. 

Second year did the same. High mite loads in the late spring the next year.

On recomendations of Heilyser Technologies who made the vaporizer, I vaporized 3 times in September. Alcohol wash to get mite count, followed by 3 vaporizations, one week apart, followed one week later by alcohol wash. Mite counts went up or stayed the same. Tried ApiLife that Fall but colonies were too far gone and temps too cold. Lost many colonies that winter.

I'm not saying that under the right conditions vapor won't work. It just doesn't work for me under my conditions. Perhaps when vaporizing at 35-40F, the cluster is too tight for the OA to penetrate. Maybe my hives have too much volume...2 deeps and a medium.

I would like to try Medhat Nasser's vaporizer which uses forced air to get the vapor into the cluster, but the cost of the unit is out of my range.


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## chillardbee (May 26, 2005)

AmericasBeekeeper said:


> Oxalic acid is for Varroa mites and beekeepers like to put lots of chemicals in hives these days. I am from the 60s so they have to be dying before they get any foreign substance in my hive. Foreign is everything they would not have naturally. If you drench bees with water or sucrocide, that is not natural.


I must strongly disagree with your statment on many accounts, sir, especially for those who are trying to make a living at it. 

First, we do not like to put chemicals in our hives. If there was was a viable alternitive I'm sure that the majority of beeks would be doing so. Giving treatments to hives for controlling tracheal and varroa mites takes time, effort, and money but it is neccessary if we are to keep them alive.

Second, again for those of us who are trying to make a living off of bees, is that waiting until a hive is dying is unacceptable. A colony that is dying will not be profitable that year and in most cases will be to late to turn the situation around, especially at fall time. So, are we going to spend X ammount of dollars on a hive thats dwindling just to see it die and then we either have to replace them with a nuc or package or make them up the following year? It's wrong and certianly not a good business decision.

Third, Unless we intend to keep bees in hollow trees, there is nothing natural about how we keep our bees. Bees in nature do not get stimulating feed in the spring, they are not controled for swarming, they do not have a fella go in to them for inspections, they are not requeened with cage queens, they do not live in a box with removable frames, they do not have there honey taken away at the end of a flow, they are not fed in fall to get back the wieght they lost due to harvesting by man, ect. On the other hand, chemicals that can be used for effective mite control can be found in nature, examplexalic acid, formic acid, EO's. 

Fourth, live stock or pets are usually vaccinated against the diseases that would kill them. bees can not be vaccinated mainly because there a constent turn over of bees particular in the summer. It use to be law here that a hive found to have AFB was to be burned just as much as a dog with distemper is to be put down. So, for us, we take the preventitive aproach, If I was to find a hive with AFB, I would kill those bees and burn the hive or if there was enough we might get it irradiated. It comes down to this, in running our livestock, an ounce of prevention is easier and cheaper to administer then a pound of treatment.


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## fish_stix (May 17, 2009)

+1. Dead hives don't develop resistance to anything and are very poor producers of honey. If your idea is to just let your bees die maybe you need another hobby.


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