If you treat or have thought about treating for mites using Oxalic Acid, now or very soon is a great time to start a series (once every 5-7 days for at least 3 weeks) of Oxalic Acid Vaporization treatments. The reason for the multiple treatments is to kill the existing phoretic (on the bees) mites and kill those mites that will emerge with hatching bees.
This time of the year, the mites are outbreeding the bees and the mite population is exploding. You can start those treatments once you pull your supers or if you’ve yet to pull them, remove them, treat and replace. If you wish, instead of removing them, place a barrier (such as coroplast) between the supers and the brood chamber, treat then remove the barrier OR even another option is to place newspaper between the brood nest and supers, treat and let the bees remove the newspaper!
OAV is not affected by high temperatures. Any temperature above 37 works.
Remember, OA does not harm the brood, bees, queen or contaminate the wax! And according to Jennifer Berry, there is no resistance!
If you don’t want to open and close your hives for other treatments that cost a ton of money; if you don’t mind doing a series of treatments at less than 10cents per treatment and do not require you to open your hives; if you enjoy killing TONS of mites, OAV could be your answer to mites!
This time of the year, the mites are outbreeding the bees and the mite population is exploding. You can start those treatments once you pull your supers or if you’ve yet to pull them, remove them, treat and replace. If you wish, instead of removing them, place a barrier (such as coroplast) between the supers and the brood chamber, treat then remove the barrier OR even another option is to place newspaper between the brood nest and supers, treat and let the bees remove the newspaper!
OAV is not affected by high temperatures. Any temperature above 37 works.
Remember, OA does not harm the brood, bees, queen or contaminate the wax! And according to Jennifer Berry, there is no resistance!
If you don’t want to open and close your hives for other treatments that cost a ton of money; if you don’t mind doing a series of treatments at less than 10cents per treatment and do not require you to open your hives; if you enjoy killing TONS of mites, OAV could be your answer to mites!