Oxalic Acid Treatment
Protect Your Bees with Oxalic Acid Crystals and Our Vaporizers
With the Oxalic
acid crystals a way has turned out well in the fight against Varroa.
Treatment 12 month the year is possible as long as the temperatures are between 3 and 5 degrees above freezing point.
Synthetic miticides remain attractive because they are never lethal to bees. Many "natural" miticides, like Thymol or essential oils or formic acid, require such high doses that they can kill the bees as well as the mites. If the mites are vulnerable, Apistan can kill 85 percent of them (if properly used and the mites are not resistant). Formic acid might kill 70 to 90 percent, but if it's too cold the acid is less effective, and if it's too hot it disperse too quickly.
Some of the essential oils have little safety margin between killing mites and killing bees. But, careful application of multiple miticides can avoid the evolution of resistant mites. It just takes the kind of attention and time that sideliners and hobbyists might not have. The promoters of multiple miticides in small dosages and the promoters of high-dose synthetics have squared off.
Caution: Oxalic acid in its crystalline form is poisonous and should be handled carefully. It should not be allowed to contact the skin and it is essential that the dust is not inhaled (datasheet). Weigh and mix outdoors, preferably in a light breeze to take any dust away from you. In the solution given above it is safe to handle with rubber gloves. Oxalic acid is not dangerous if precautions are taken. Wear rubber gloves and be careful not to let the acid touch your skin or eyes. Wear old clothes, use protective mask, and glasses.
Essential
advantages over the actual
usually fighting methods are:
- No delays in the honey, beeswax and propolis
- Very good bee compatibility
- High degree of effectiveness , up to 99% in brood free colonies
- No early ageing of the bees (important to population of the bees in spring)
- Usable outside of the honey-collection time
- Very user kind for the beekeeper
- No Oxalic acid resistance possible
- Easy to use and takes approximately only 1 minutes to treat each colony
Test results reveal the oxalic acid concentration in honey from treated colonies was in the range of 22.8 - 37.7 mg / kg while results from untreated colonies showed a concentration from 20 - 400mg / kg. Therefore, treated colonies can be seen to have a lower concentration of oxalic acid than untreated.
Efficiency from the Oxalic Acid Evaporation in a Different DosageTest Results | Without Treatment | Water |
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Lowest Effect | 0,0% | 1,3% | 51,7% | 93,2% | 91,7% | 98,1% | 99,0% | ||||||||||
Average Effect | 1,2% | 4,8% | 82,8% | 96,0% | 97,2% | 99,0% | 99,2% | ||||||||||
Highest Effect | 2,7% | 11,5% | 96,0% | 99,2% | 99,6% | 99,7% | 98,8% | ||||||||||
Beehives per Test | 6 | 8 | 12 | 10 | 13 | 11 | 5 |