# Oxalic acid dribbling spring 2009



## chillardbee (May 26, 2005)

I do use that method but once a year in the fall. I wait until the last of the brood has hatched (mid october) and apply 5ml/space between the frame and up to a total of 50ml/hive. If there is 5 frames of bees then i use only 25 30ml and if the bees are covering only one half the end of the frame then 2.5 ml per that space (to give a full 5ml shot to those bees then would work out to 10ml per space and thats a big NO NO).

The thing i like about this method is that a lot of the mites are exposed at the time of treatment, the reason we wait until there is no brood though is because this treatment will supposedly kill it and I'm not about to test that on my hives.


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## beekuk (Dec 31, 2008)

Hi Ernie, been using this treatment when broodless in winter to mop any mite re-infestation, after autumn thymol treatment, for the past 3 seasons,same as the post above,with a 3.2% solution.


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## BEES4U (Oct 10, 2007)

*Replies*

Thank you for the replies.
The problem that I/we have aong the southern coast of California is that the bees have brood in them when it's colder in other areas.
If we wait until late Nov.-Dec it's too late and we have lost our hives.
I know that a lot of hives are staged, treated and then brought in to Calif . for our mild winters and proximity to the almonds.
Ernie


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## Axtmann (Dec 29, 2002)

Ernie why you’re not using Thymol strips in spring and late summer, they mostly solve the mite problem before there population overruns the bees. It’s a good treatment against both kinds of mites, Google for Thymomite.


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## chillardbee (May 26, 2005)

Sorry about that, I didn't put my recipe on here. Below is a copy and paste from the BC Ministry of Apiculture fact sheet on varroa control and this is the recipe I use.


Acid-sugar syrup solution: 
Prepare 1 litre of 1:1 sugar solution. 
Add 35 g of oxalic acid crystals to the warm solution and stir gently until fully dissolved. The sugar syrup solution will have an acid concentration of 3.5%. 
With a syringe or applicator, trickle 5 ml of solution directly onto the bees in each of the occupied bee spaces between frames in each brood box. 
The maximum dose is 50 ml of acid solution per colony whether it is a nuc, single or multiple brood chambered hive.


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## jim lyon (Feb 19, 2006)

*spring use*

Of course I (ahem) wouldn't use something that was off label in the US of A but if I did I would apply a 3.2% solution 18 to 20 days after killing the old queen during a slightly earlier than ideal checkback and simply re-cell anything that dosen't have a queen actively laying. I am also sure that (hypothetically of course) I wouldn't notice any adverse effects in brood production from the treatment.


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## Grant (Jun 12, 2004)

jim lyon said:


> but if I did I would apply a 3.2% solution 18 to 20 days after killing the old queen.


I understand the broodless aspect of the application, but does it necessarily have to be in the late fall?

For instance, "IF" I was to apply it, how would it work to make some late summer splits, allowing the bees to raise their own queen from an emergency cell, then 18 to 20 days after making the splits apply the OA according to your directions?

The temperatures would be warmer. Does that affect the OA and the bees?

Just wondering, of course.

Grant
Jackson, MO


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## Axtmann (Dec 29, 2002)

I personally would never treat my hives with liquid OA in late fall or winter. The liquid acid shortens the live of winter bees and lots of bees die already in January and February. Normally they live till April and take care of the bees for the new season. The change for surviving of hives with liquid acid treatments in a colder climate IMO is 50/50 or less.
The liquid OA treatments during spring or summer are less danger because summer bees have a short lifespan, but still there only one treatment per bee generation is recommended.

I wonder why people still try to safe money for an OA vaporizer and take the risk to loose a hive. How much cost a hive and how much would cost any kind of vaporizer? 
I said already several times, you can treat a colony with vapor as often as necessary; there is no harm to bees, queen or brood. – any time the year when the temperature is above freezing.
If you treat them with liquid, they have to clean each other and the get the acid in there stomach…that’s where the trouble starts.


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## Grant (Jun 12, 2004)

Axtmann said:


> I wonder why people still try to safe money for an OA vaporizer and take the risk to loose a hive. How much cost a hive and how much would cost any kind of vaporizer?


Thanks for that input. There was a time I googled and surfed a bunch of sites for vaporizers, some were commercial machines that you hook up to a car battery, some were home-made gadgets that you heat with a propane/butane torch. There is great deal of concern about beekeeper health and safety with the fumes.

All of these vaporizers, interestingly, were used when the temperatures were colder and the colony was obviously broodless. There was also some concern about the vapors condensing back into a solid on the inner cover, the concern then being how much OA vapors were lost to the condensation and thus ineffective. 

Grant
Jackson, MO


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