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This week I was scratching my head trying to figure out how to remove the partially filled honey supers before OAV treatment and decided, "you know what, let me just eat some of this stuff and test the toxicity directly".
I ate maybe 1/8th of a teaspoon, which is about 25% of a dose.
It's just sour, not even noticeably "acidic". Tastes just like eating any sour candy you can buy in the store.
Never developed a single negative effect, not even an upset stomach.
EPA's designation as a pesticide is total Bull.
Don't try this at home, but seriously am I living in some alternative reality where harmless substances are being labelled as toxic but something like Checkmite/apistan is still being sold over the counter and touted as effective?
I guess the fact that I can treat my entire apiary and build my own vaporizer for $170 isn't very appealing to these bee supply companies, who helped fund the EPA's decision.
Just to be clear, I do avoid doing OAV in any apiary where there's an obvious summer dearth - I remove the honey supers and then do my treatment. For 90% of beekeepers here, there's no reason to do OAV during a honey flow, and I don't recommend it. For the other 10%, when there's no avoiding it - I can verify that OA is harmless.
I'd strongly argue that OAV is just as harmless as formic acid - can both be used when honey supers are present.
I acknowledge that this is not technically legal - so I don't recommend doing it for anything other than personal consumption.
End of rant.
I ate maybe 1/8th of a teaspoon, which is about 25% of a dose.
It's just sour, not even noticeably "acidic". Tastes just like eating any sour candy you can buy in the store.
Never developed a single negative effect, not even an upset stomach.
EPA's designation as a pesticide is total Bull.
Don't try this at home, but seriously am I living in some alternative reality where harmless substances are being labelled as toxic but something like Checkmite/apistan is still being sold over the counter and touted as effective?
I guess the fact that I can treat my entire apiary and build my own vaporizer for $170 isn't very appealing to these bee supply companies, who helped fund the EPA's decision.
Just to be clear, I do avoid doing OAV in any apiary where there's an obvious summer dearth - I remove the honey supers and then do my treatment. For 90% of beekeepers here, there's no reason to do OAV during a honey flow, and I don't recommend it. For the other 10%, when there's no avoiding it - I can verify that OA is harmless.
I'd strongly argue that OAV is just as harmless as formic acid - can both be used when honey supers are present.
I acknowledge that this is not technically legal - so I don't recommend doing it for anything other than personal consumption.
End of rant.
