OA in summer??

[drobbins]

Hello All,

It seems everything I read about oxalic acid says to only use it after the bee's stop raising brood. It's implied that this is because it won't kill mites in capped cells. Some other treatments like sucrocide solve this problem by doing repeated treatments. Why isn't this recommended with OA?
Does it harm the brood?

Dave

[Michael Bush]

>It seems everything I read about oxalic acid says to only use it after the bee's stop raising brood.

If you do that you can get by with only one treatment.

>It's implied that this is because it won't kill mites in capped cells.

That is part of it.

>Some other treatments like sucrocide solve this problem by doing repeated treatments. Why isn't this recommended with OA?

Axtman recommends it all the time.

>Does it harm the brood?

Yes. There has been some research that shows that.

[drobbins]

Hi Michael,

I started my first package 5 weeks ago and I want to stay away from pesticides. I'm just trying to figure out what to do if I have a problem before they stop raising brood in the fall.
Already got grease patties and wintergreen
powdered sugar sounds worth a try
FGMO? maybe, sounds like a lot of work
Sucrocide? not cheap but better than pesticides
So many choices ;)

Dave

[Michael Bush]

>I started my first package 5 weeks ago and I want to stay away from pesticides. I'm just trying to figure out what to do if I have a problem before they stop raising brood in the fall.

You probably won't have a problem until then. If you do, then deal with it. You can treat once a week for three weeks with any of the effective alternatives (Oxalic acide, sucrocide, powdered sugar etc.) and put a heck of a dent in the Varroa.

>Already got grease patties and wintergreen

If you have good genetics you shouldn't need the grease patties. If you have small cell you shouldn't need the grease patties. If you use FGMO fog, you shouldn't need the grease patties.

>powdered sugar sounds worth a try

Maybe. I've never tried it.

>FGMO? maybe, sounds like a lot of work

Probably less work than you think. It requires more dilegence, but it's not much work to walk by and fog the hives. If you use the cords it's a lot more work. I never did.

>Sucrocide? not cheap but better than pesticides

I've never tried it, but they say it works. Looks like much more labor than the FGMO fog.

>So many choices ;)

It's good to have choices.