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Author Topic: Oxalic Acid Trickling  (Read 11398 times)

Offline bberry

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Oxalic Acid Trickling
« on: October 24, 2007, 02:47:37 pm »
So i treated my hives a few days ago with the OA trickle method as i had quite a bad mite prob. I think it is working really well as i had a huge mite drop. The application was really easy and the bees seemed unaffected by it-business as usual about the hive. I am wondering how i proceed after this though-if i still have a large mite count is it safe to re-treat in the same manner? Will a few PS shakes after do? We just started to get a late heat wave tmps in the 70's :-\

Offline Cindi

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Re: Oxalic Acid Trickling
« Reply #1 on: October 25, 2007, 12:19:22 am »
bberry.  You MAY NOT retreat again with the oxalic acid treatment when it is done as a syrup trickle.  It is only ALLOWED once per year.  I have read this over and over.  DO not treat again until next fall if you have to.  I don't even think that you should do any more further treatments until spring.  Leave the bees alone for the wintertime rest.

You will see by the figures in the chart that Finsky posted, the mites will keep falling for several weeks.  You can probably bet your bottom dollar that your mite levels will be extremely low, even perhaps non-existent after this time.  Oxalic acid syrup trickling is excellent mite controls, done, when you have, when there is no brood present in the hives.  Have a wonderful day, best of this life.  Cindi

 
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Offline Finsky

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Re: Oxalic Acid Trickling
« Reply #2 on: October 25, 2007, 05:08:26 am »
-if i still have a large mite count is it safe to re-treat in the same manner?

OA affects during 2 month and mites are dropping. Only what you may do is look, if hive has some brood inside. If they are, cut them off or kill in freezer.

Offline BMAC

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Re: Oxalic Acid Trickling
« Reply #3 on: October 25, 2007, 08:45:34 am »
So how much does Oxalic Acid cost per lbs?

I have only found it in one spot here in a small enough quantity to be able to buy.  It is lab grade oxalic (99.9999% pure) and it cost me $12.00 per lbs.
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Offline Finsky

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Re: Oxalic Acid Trickling
« Reply #4 on: October 25, 2007, 10:43:33 am »

You can handle with that amount 250 hives or 10 hives during next 25 years.

Offline Dick Allen

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Re: Oxalic Acid Trickling
« Reply #5 on: October 25, 2007, 12:59:22 pm »
Oxalic acid crystals can probably be found here in the U.S. at your local hardware/paint store. It's sold as wood bleach.

Here in Ancorage, True Value Hardware carries DAP brand Wood Bleach in 12 oz. (340 g) containers. That's plenty enough to last several years for the average hobbyist beekeeper.

Offline SteveSC

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Re: Oxalic Acid Trickling
« Reply #6 on: October 25, 2007, 01:28:24 pm »
I bought the DAP brand wood beach ( Oxalic acid )  D.Allen mentioned. I got it at ACE hardware - $6.75  12 oz. crystals.

Offline bberry

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Re: Oxalic Acid Trickling
« Reply #7 on: October 25, 2007, 10:53:34 pm »
I got the Ace brand Wood Bleach-99.9 % OA at Ace hardware for $7.49 Thank you Cindi for clerifying the one treatment-maybe i was reading wrong but it was not clear to me. the hives are doing great and have seemed to suffer not at all from this form of treatment.

Offline Finsky

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Re: Oxalic Acid Trickling
« Reply #8 on: October 25, 2007, 11:27:03 pm »
Bberry, you live in California. You should look into hives and take away brood frames if you have them. Then kill brood in freezer and let bees  clean combs.  Faster way is to let birds pick up brood from combs after killing. Swarm of major tits or magpie  clean the frame in couple of hours.

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Offline Cindi

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Re: Oxalic Acid Trickling
« Reply #9 on: October 25, 2007, 11:54:10 pm »
Bberry.  By the way, Finsky is correct with what he is saying.  If you had brood in the hives when you trickled they will be damaged/dead.  To make it easier for the bees, kill the brood quickly by freezing (if you can).  I don't know how long it takes for oxalic acid trickling to kill the brood, but it does, and maybe it takes some time, so quick freezing will speed up the process.  Let us know how things continue to work out, we are all interested.  Have a great and wonderful day.  Cindi
There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold.  The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold.  The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee.  Robert Service

Offline Finsky

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Re: Oxalic Acid Trickling
« Reply #10 on: October 26, 2007, 02:10:46 am »
  If you had brood in the hives when you trickled they will be damaged/dead.   Cindi

Worse is that mites will stay alive under cappings. They may be 80% of hive's mites.

Offline Cindi

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Re: Oxalic Acid Trickling
« Reply #11 on: October 26, 2007, 10:28:57 am »
Corraborating what Finsky says.  That is why to kill the brood, there are mites in "them thar hills", hiding, destroying baby bees, to emerge, latch onto an adult and then.......

In my understanding of the mite babies.  If you see 1 mite on a bee, you can know that the mites in the cells will be 10-fold of this.

One mite means means 10 in cells.  Two mites means 20 mites in cells.  Three mites means 30 in cells.  These are only approximations, but take it from there, do a little bit of math, and you see how colonies can become over run in no time at all.  Mites are serious, and are one of the worst plagues of the bees in these days.  Sounds like, "here we go again, time for learning and listening", but yes, here we go again, learning, and learning more.  Have a wonderful and greatest of this day on our earth.  Cindi
There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold.  The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold.  The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee.  Robert Service

Offline bberry

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Re: Oxalic Acid Trickling
« Reply #12 on: October 26, 2007, 07:54:57 pm »
Hives were clear of brood when i treated them. The mite drop is still large and hopefully this will take care of the prob. Thank you everyone for your help!

Offline bberry

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Re: Oxalic Acid Trickling
« Reply #13 on: October 31, 2007, 02:29:40 pm »
Ok thought i'd update and seek some opinions. So the mite drop was great success-checked the hive thoroughly the other day and saw no mites anywhere-there were a couple on the bottom board. What i did see is that the empty brood cells are now full of eggs. We are having pretty warm weather here and i guess the queen is getting the green light to lay again. Will the eggs be effected by the OA treatment from before?
Also as i was going frame by frame doing an inspec. i noticed a nice plump queen cell that i had not noticed before??? This hive has been really struggling the last few months so maybe they...? If they superceded the queen is this maybe why the new queen is laying? Spotted the queen(who has been elusive the entire season) and she seemed like a diff queen-very fat and larger than the queen i remember from way back in spring.
Not really sure if i should be optimistic that they have a chance for a better queen or worried or don't worry cuz they did it already no matter how i feel about it :)

Offline Moonshae

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Re: Oxalic Acid Trickling
« Reply #14 on: October 31, 2007, 09:26:22 pm »
I was under the impression that this treatment is not yet approved in the US...is that correct?
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Offline Michael Bush

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Re: Oxalic Acid Trickling
« Reply #15 on: October 31, 2007, 09:49:22 pm »
>I was under the impression that this treatment is not yet approved in the US...is that correct?

Neither is powdered sugar, or FGMO, or thymol crystals, or garlic powder, or vegetable oil...
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Offline qa33010

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Re: Oxalic Acid Trickling
« Reply #16 on: November 01, 2007, 02:02:37 am »
   But I understand that powdered sugar is not intended to kill, just to knock off.  Oh yeah...and feed the ants ;)
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Offline Michael Bush

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Re: Oxalic Acid Trickling
« Reply #17 on: November 01, 2007, 08:08:31 am »
And oxalic acid is just to bleach the wood in the frames...
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Offline BMAC

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Re: Oxalic Acid Trickling
« Reply #18 on: November 01, 2007, 09:55:53 am »
So when I go to bleach my frames in my hives I can only do this once a year???

So does this also mean there in no mite treatment like Thymol in the spring time???
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Offline BAStallard

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Re: Oxalic Acid Trickling
« Reply #19 on: November 01, 2007, 09:58:05 am »
I there a thread or website that describes in detail how to do this treatment?  

 

anything