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Started fogging today.

93K views 204 replies 59 participants last post by  AHudd 
#1 ·
Well i started fogging today never did it before i did all 10 hives in no time[15 min. tops} .
I did a mite count with sticky boards before and after the before was real low in all hives{no more then 5 in 48 hours}but it is only the start of the year here.
The after {3 hours} even lower then before I'm going to do a count in 48 hours and see what they look like then.
I'll bee fogging every 7 to 10 days till fall and i'll let besource know how it goes . I'll give it a year with these 10 hives then we'll know if fogging with FGMO is good for varroa or not .
I did not kill any bees with fogging{and i did them real well } they where calm with in 5 mins. after theywhere fogged.
I'm going to do a alcohol wash with nurse bees as soon things start booming here.
I will update everytime i fog . Hope it works;)
 
#102 ·
Well everyone things are changing with my mite counts and 20 and over on the sticky board in 24 hours all happen real fast about a week any way I ordered a oxalic acid vaporizer and going to do all my year plus hives I don't want to lose my hives and I am not waiting for PMS or DWV show up I know how fast the VARROA can take over so I don't think I will be fogging my year old hives any more this year the next 3 weeks is going to be oxalic acid treatment and get them ready for winter.
I'm still going to fog my nucs and maybe next year fog them with essential oils of some kind but for this year no more fogging the big hives .
I'll post the mite count when I do a oxalic acid treatment .
Thanks everyone and I must say all my bee are healthy and much better then last year and i'm sure fogging helped but I don't think it will work alone got to remember i'm am on small cell for most my hives also and all but one had a brood break .
Happy beeing. :)
 
#105 ·
Robbin,
I have 12 hives in my back yard and fog them all. My first fogging was May 17; and then fogged every two weeks. However, when I saw that one hive with a 50 mite count /24 hours, I started fogging every week.
I should have monitored every hive - just too lazy.
I do not know why the spearmint oil is added to the FGMO. I suppose that it adds a smell so that the bees will groom more.
Charlie

12 hives zone 5
 
#106 ·
I’ve got freeman beetle traps under 5 out of 6 hives and I’ve really eliminated my SHB threat with them. Beetles get chased down there and drown, any larva that try to climb out to reach the ground, drown. I was hoping for some effect on the mites. Doesn’t look like it, They obviously don’t crawl back up and re-infect much. All my bearding had stopped on my two largest hives. No sign of swarms. So I was really getting concerned about mites.
I changed my oil last week and I used NEW, unused oil so it was nice and clear, And I fogged for the first time. I went out and fogged yesterday (2nd time) and pulled the oil trays back on the two largest hives. After a week, I found 1 SHB in each. Dozens of roaches in each, and tons of mites. I’ve never done a mite count as I keep oil trays on all the time. But I was really surprised. No doubt my numbers are dwindling due to heavy mite infestation. I’m seriously considering using check mite, I don’t want to lose either of my big strong hives. No way to tell if the large mite drop was caused by the fogging, thou I’m sure it had some effect. I may pull my trays and do some drop counts. I just can’t kill bees to count mites. I’ll most likely break down and use check mite before something really bad happens. When you’ve only got 6 hives, it doesn’t take much to put you out of business….
Robbin
 
#107 ·
Ok everyone it like this I did oxalic acid vaporizer treatment on my year old hives that have been fogged every week since may and the mite drop on the hive I gave a brood break first this past spring has dropped around 600 mites since WED. night this is SAT morning .
Then the hive I had not given a brood break dropped the next highest at around 300 . The hives that where queenless the longest seem to have the lower mite counts but all are dropping more mites then I was seeing with fogging . Plus the mite that are dropping now look darker .
I don't think fogging and brood breaks alone are enough to keep your mites in check but oxalic acid vaporizing may be just what will work for VARROA It pretty easy to do and there are lots of dead mites on the sticky boards . After a 3 week treatment I will do alcohol washes on all my hives and post the findings. Peace.
 
#109 ·
Glock, that is an impressive mite drop, I vaporized my hives in September of last year and during a quick inspection last weekend I pulled more than a dozen drone brood and found only 1 mite. All my best to you with your hives.
 
#110 ·
Low mite counts are nice but my mite counts looked low I was fogging I figured everything was good and it is all my bees are doing great but they have some mites more then I should so if a oxalic acid vapourizer keeps them healthy i'm go to make it part of my pest management but for fogging with just FGMO does not keep the mite where they need to be to make me happy I don't like the idea of watching hives die slowly to PMS I seen it last year and this year no signs of it any where in my bee yards and I want to keep it that way.



And I have brood in all my hives right now and all are healthy.:D
 
#111 ·
GLOCK - thanks for reporting your results on the mite drops with the OA vaporizing. I gotta say, I was skeptical about the efficacy of fogging, but was hoping your experiment would prove otherwise. However, a 600 mite drop on a hive that has been FGMO fogged weekly For 3 or 4 months doesn't sound to me that all that fogging has done much good.

Seems to me that with how effective the OA treatment is, the fogging, at best, is just background noise. Do you still feel that the fogging is helping enough with the mites to be worth continuing?
 
#112 ·
Glock, by what you have described it would appear that the FGMO fogging kept your hives healthy enough to just barely avoid pms, dwv, and other related symptoms but at the same time the bees may not have had the ability to make it through the winter ok. Perhaps this has always been what was behind the question of whether FGMO really works. Your summer of fogging has been an eye opener.
 
#113 ·
Thanks for sharing all of this especially when the results were not what you hoped for. I really wonder now what would he happened if as mentioned ( by Reader I think) you could have used half of your hives as a control. I completely understand why you didn't though. We all do what we judge to be best, and very few people are able to sacrifice half there hives to get better science out of our experiments. We do whatever we do because we hope it will work on all of them.

Thanks again for the contribution to the community and good luck.
 
#114 ·
Glock,

Thanks for taking the time to report your findings with fogging. Some do just fine with fogging, while others can have catastrophic results. I guess if someone is going to try it, they need to be vigilant and have a Plan B ready to go in the event it does not work for them.

For OA Vapor use in our region, three treatments one week apart in August, then one more treatment on a warm day between Thanksgiving and Christmas when they are broodless, should do the trick.
 
#115 ·
Glock, regardless of the outcome, ThankYou for your time and effort towards your Bee's, but more so, Thank You for your time and energy sharing your outcome in these posts. I realize how much you have shared with all of us who have read your Threads and it is noted that you are devoted and systematic and you shared that with us, helping us learn through you!
Best Regards to a you and your Girls!
 
#117 ·
Just to let everyone know all the hives I have been treating with oxalic acid vaporizing are dropping mites like rain . I can not beleave how many mite my bees had they all seemed healthy but man a lot of mite have dropped off all my hives.
Two have had over a 1000 mites drop since this past WED. :eek: .
I had a 3 deep nuc that I put in a DBL deep less then a month ago and I treat it and even that one is dropping mite like over 50 a day {I did that one on SAT}. I might have to treat my nucs.
I am a isolated beekeeper there are no other beekeepers for miles so I wonder did the mite population just grow in my beeyards? Where do the mites come from? Any way to all the beekeepers thinking about fogging as your only weapon against VARROA better rethink it . Reason I did this fogging thread was so that all that follow BS know the truth about fogging It dose not work alone for sure I kinda wonder if it worked at all but my bees where acting healthy the whole time but they where VARROA infested and I go by experience and facts.
Well I am getting ready for winter with oxalic acid vaporizing and making sure all have honey and happy healthy bees.
Thanks and all I have wrote is facts straight from my bee yards fogging did not fix my VARROA problem but oxalic acid vaporizing kicking but .
peace.
 
#119 ·
Glock, do you give up fogging or not? Studies I read showed as much as 30% fewer mites. At half that, is it worth fogging? It doesn't cost a lot, and it's pretty easy. But if you are going to be driven to treatment anyway, is it worth it? Or is it worth it between treatments to keep mites down?

Thanks...
 
#122 ·
You have my thanks too, Glock. :thumbsup:
I have been fogging with Thymol mixed in the FGMO for three weeks now. I have not done any checks on mite levels since but based on your posts, I bought a vaporizer and Oxalic powder last night on e-bay.
Good luck with your bees and I hope this winter is kind to you.

Stephen
 
#123 ·
Just to let everyone know I have done 2 treatments with oxalic acid vaporizing and i'm still dropping varroa like rain .
3 hives well over 1000 in 10 days so if your thinking about fogging with just FGMO you will have mite bombs by SEPT.
Now I had 3 hives that I took the queens out of in end of july and there varroa drops have been real low but it took over a mounth to get these hive queen right again so right now there just starting to have a lot of brood I even had to give a queen to one seemed like they just couldn't make there own . No more fogging for me oxalic acid vaporizing I think it's working great more dead VARROA on my sticky boards then I ever seen.
GOOD LUCK to all of you .
:w
 
#125 ·
Just to let everyone know I have done 2 treatments with oxalic acid vaporizing and i'm still dropping varroa like rain. 3 hives well over 1000 in 10 days so if your thinking about fogging with just FGMO you will have mite bombs by SEPT.
No more fogging for me oxalic acid vaporizing. I think it's working great more dead VARROA on my sticky boards then I ever seen.GOOD LUCK to all of you. :w
Great testimony to buy an Oxalic Acid Vaporizer! See my add in the "For Sale" forum!
 
#124 ·
Glock, how are the fumes when you vaporize? A commercial beekeeper at EAS joked that he's sell me two vaporizers. When I asked him more, he said the fumes will knock you over. I think Randy Oliver said they were pretty nasty in his write-up about oxalic acid. Thanks
 
#126 ·
DPB,
Glock will no doubt be happy to answer your inquiry but if I may step in for a moment to help you I can tell you that yes OA will knock the breath right out of you and very quickly at that. There are ways to avoid breathing the vapors, you can use a cartridge mask with an approved NIOSH filter cartridge rated for organic acids which I have but do not use. The method that I use is to place the vaporizer into the hive then seal the entrance which will keep a majority of the vapor in the hive, the vaporizer has a 15 foot electric cord on it so I stand 15 feet away and upwind from the hives as well. I have been vaporizing my hives for 3 years and have never had any problems with breathing the vapors but I must add do be careful these vapors will leave you coughing for a few seconds, if you feel safer with a mask then by all means use it.
 
#128 ·
WWW...you have 3 years experience with OAV...evidently it has been successful...tell us how and how often...how many colonies...any bad results ? how do you measure OA per box.....only in fall season? what brand of vaporizer? did you do a trial outside the hive to determine how long the vapor lasts? car battery or mower?
 
#129 ·
oldforte,
Last year I expanded to 6 colonies, all made it through last winter just fine, I apply OA vapor with a Heilyser JB200 vaporizer during the month of October, I apply once a week for three weeks however this year I will start doing four weekly applications for no other reason than I just want to be thorough. I use 1 gram of OA per deep hive body and have never had a bad result. This year I am going into winter with 8 hives and I will be treating them all next month. By the way, since I got back into beekeeping 5 years ago I have not lost a single hive, they have been coming through the winters healthy and vibrant.

Yes I did a number of trials outside the hives when I first set up my DC power source. I opened up a battery charger and by-passed the IC board on the inside so that the transformer put the DC voltage through the amp selector switch and then to the battery cables, this had to be done to make the charger work right for energizing my vaporizer. With the charger set on 2 amps it takes 2 1/2 minuets for the OA to sublimate, and this time is a constant. I like the charger because the time that it takes for the OA to vaporize is always the same, but the timing will vary when using a battery so an outside burn is always a necessity.

I hope this helps, if you have any more questions just let me know. :)
 
#131 ·
oldforte,
Last year I expanded to 6 colonies, all made it through last winter just fine, I apply OA vapor with a Heilyser JB200 vaporizer during the month of October, I apply once a week for three weeks however this year I will start doing four weekly applications for no other reason than I just want to be thorough. I use 1 gram of OA per deep hive body and have never had a bad result. This year I am going into winter with 8 hives and I will be treating them all next month. By the way, since I got back into beekeeping 5 years ago I have not lost a single hive, they have been coming through the winters healthy and vibrant.
That's great I have 13 hives {dbl deeps} and 13 {dbl} nucs and all are healthy and doing well oxalic acid vaporizing is working for sure. When I vaporizing I put the oxalic acid in the vaporizer hook it up to the battery and wait for it to start to fume and once it starts I put it in the hive put the towel over the front and walk away and wait one min. and then I go back and disconnect the vaporizer from the battery and walk away for like 3 min then I take the towel away and go to the next one I don't really inhale any fumes . I say just start and you will get it very easy. I'm doing the same as you 1 gram per deep.
I did one of my nucs 1 gram for a dbl nuc and let it hooked up to the battery for 40 sec. and did the rest just like a big hive . I'm going to check the nuc tomorrow and make sure the queen had no problem with it so far i'm happy.
 
#130 ·
Thanks Wcubed for the info....I will order the Heilyser and start treatments this fall...your Oct. is probably equal to my Nov. ....by that time I should have only 3/4 mediums on.... the constant charging system you came up with is awesome ...half my colonies are not AC accessible ...I would hope to rig a battery for constant output if possible...will need help on that one. Yes, thank for the help, I may have question later
 
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