Dry ice and storing comb

[mhorowit]

My hive died and i'd like to kill any bug in the comb so I can reuse it next spring
No room on the freezer
Any reason I couldn't buy some dry ice,throw it in a cooler along with the comb for two days?
-mike

[JRG13]

Should work, I would seal it up in a bag to maximize the Co2 concentration as well.

[rweakley]

You could also buy some BT from Sundance in the forsale section, spray the frames, then stack the boxes with solid tops and bottoms and you will be fine. Your biggest concern, unless you have small hive beetles is wax moths, followed by mice. With the BT you might get very minor damage, but nothing the bees can't clean up in a jiffy.

[phillyfireman]

Maybe just place them in a cooler from walmart. it will get plenty cold during the winter in virginia to kill anything, and in the spring you have a cooler for the summer months.

[mhorowit]

You know, that's a simple solution; in fact I can just leave the bars where they are. I do have a tendency to complicate things. Maybe bring in several suspect bars in February to see that everything got cold enough to die.

[libhart]

If leaving it out in the cold, be sure to open the hive completely and give each box one last quick look-see to be sure no mice have made a home. Once confirmed (or you've scared off any unwelcome visitors), close off all the entrances because a mouse might still make a nest in there otherwise.

If you go the dry ice route, remember that dry ice expands like crazy in volume, so be sure to have a bag large enough to take the expansion or in a cooler just prop it open a tiny bit so the CO2 can displace the air without blowing itself open.