# How long is Oxalic Acid solution (dribble) viable?



## exmar (Apr 30, 2015)

Decided I'd start with an OA dribble tomorrow. As I only have two hives, will only need a total of 100ml, but the "formula" I have is for 600ml. Not an issue this time of year as I'll only treat once and dispose of the excess. Wondering though, later on, may want to treat a total of two or three times at week intervals, would the solution still be viable? Cheap enough to mix more every time.

I built a simple vaporizer using fittings, thin wall copper, and heat source is a torch. However, going to open the hives tomorrow to check see if they need sugar and check on things, so thought a simple solution would be a good way to go for my first ever OA or other treatment. 

Ev


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## fatshark (Jun 17, 2009)

Keep OA made up solution in the fridge (and *well labelled*! It's poisonous.). It keeps reasonably well http://www.dave-cushman.net/bee/oxalicstorage.html but once it goes brown chuck it out as the HMF levels will be dangerously high for the bees.
But ... if I understand your post ... you probably should not dribble multiple times in the season. It's toxic to unsealed brood. OA dribbling needs a reasonably tightly clustered colony, low temperatures and no brood. There are also reports that queens don't respond well to multiple treatments with dribbled OA, though I'm not aware of any proper data on this. 

You can vaporise multiple times, and need to if there's brood present. I've done it many times and it's well tolerated by the colony and queen.


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## Rader Sidetrack (Nov 30, 2011)

Vaporizers are used with dry powder oxalic acid. The "dribble" method is a mix of sugar, water, and oxalic acid (end result is a liquid) applied with a sprayer or syringe.


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## sjj (Jan 2, 2007)

exmar said:


> Decided I'd start with an OA dribble tomorrow. As I only have two hives, will only need a total of 100ml, but the "formula" I have is for 600ml. ...


Ev, do you find difficult to prepare the solution?


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## Acebird (Mar 17, 2011)

Rader Sidetrack said:


> The "dribble" method is a mix of sugar, water, and oxalic acid.


What does the sugar do or why is it in the mix?


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## Rader Sidetrack (Nov 30, 2011)

Acebird said:


> What does the sugar do or why is it in the mix?


Makes it _work_, Ace! 

http://scientificbeekeeping.com/oxalic-dribble-tips/


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## exmar (Apr 30, 2015)

sjj said:


> Ev, do you find difficult to prepare the solution?


This afternoon is the first time I'm going to try it. Following the instructions here, seems simple enough, provided you don't exceed the 50ML. per hive.

http://www.honeybeesuite.com/how-to-apply-an-oxalic-acid-dribble/


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## exmar (Apr 30, 2015)

fatshark said:


> Keep OA made up solution in the fridge (and *well labelled*! It's poisonous.). It keeps reasonably well http://www.dave-cushman.net/bee/oxalicstorage.html but once it goes brown chuck it out as the HMF levels will be dangerously high for the bees.
> But ... if I understand your post ... you probably should not dribble multiple times in the season. It's toxic to unsealed brood. OA dribbling needs a reasonably tightly clustered colony, low temperatures and no brood. There are also reports that queens don't respond well to multiple treatments with dribbled OA, though I'm not aware of any proper data on this.
> 
> You can vaporise multiple times, and need to if there's brood present. I've done it many times and it's well tolerated by the colony and queen.


Yes, I knew that. Was tired last night or something.  Spring is coming on and some of my projects are overlapping in my so called brain. I will only be treating once with the dribble.


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## Acebird (Mar 17, 2011)

exmar said:


> http://www.honeybeesuite.com/how-to-apply-an-oxalic-acid-dribble/





> The syrup dilutes and distributes the oxalic acid better than water would. Water would evaporate too quickly, before it got spread around from bee to bee. I don’t know if the researchers tried anything else, but syrup seems to be a logical answer. It’s actually a good question.


Got my answer.


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## whiskers (Aug 28, 2011)

If you wanted to mix 100 ml of "weak" solution from here
http://scientificbeekeeping.com/oxalic-acid-treatment-table/
you would start with 60 ml of hot water (about 1/4 cup), 60 grams of sugar (also about 1/4 cup) and 3.5 grams oxalic acid dihydrate (about 1/8 oz or 54 grains if you have a handloaders scale). Instructions I have found say dissolve the acid first, then the sugar. Such a small quantity will cool quickly so I would put the mixing vessel in a larger container of hot water to retain heat.
Bill


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## exmar (Apr 30, 2015)

No longer TF! Mixed the solution per the information I attached in the link above. First time I'd done it, so took my time. Bought a little scale to weigh grams on ebay for about $10 delivered, handy to have. I mixed the full amount, used 100mL on the two hives-total and disposed of the rest. poured the hot water in a container, stirred in the OA, there was some foaming and hissing which surprised me, quieted right down, added the sugar, stirred until everything was in solution and that was it. I only had 10mL syringes here on the farm so used one of those, five times per hive. Cut a piece of cardboard to fit under the screened bottoms and sprayed with cooking spray will wander down in a day or so and see what dropped.
Bees seemed happy and healthy, hadn't touched the sugar I'd given them in December, and getting into the hive, they seemed to have plenty of stores. Returned to the barn and started repairing and scraping woodenware, can't waste a 65 degree day!
Whiskers, found your post after I got back from outside. Thanks anyway. Will file that away for future reference.
Ev


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