ENVIRONMENT

Oxalic Acid Vaporization

Some things to remember when planning your OA vaporizations:

• 1.     OA only kills mites on adult bees.  There will be mites under the capped brood with the pupa and OA will not kill them.
• 2.    When there is capped brood present in the colony, it is suggested to do at least 4 treatments in a row about 5 days apart to capture mites emerging from brood.
• 3.    Do vaporization when the bees are all in the hive but not so cold that they are tightly clustered together and the OA cannot penetrate the cluster.   It is effective to do OA treatments when the temperature is in the range of 37 degrees to 43 degrees.  It can also be effective to OA when it is raining, as all the bees will be inside.
• 4.    All or most colonies will have no brood in December and January.  It may be helpful to do one OA treatment then.
• 5.    Academic studies have shown that OA vaporization does not affect the life span of a bee.