[Sr. Tanya]

I am new to using an oxalic acid vaporizer. Just bought one and will be receiving it in a few days. Due to some medical and other problems I wasn't able to treat the hives in fall. Is it possible to do one or more treatments in February??? I think the temperature has to be at least 40 degrees. Is that right?

 

[JWPalmer]

OAV does not have hard and fast temperature rules like formic acid. However, to be effective, the bees cannot be tightly clustered, so yeah, above 40°F would be best. OAV can be applied anytime honey supers are not present. A treatment applied now will kill all of the so called phoretic mites in the hive. If your hive already has capped brood, you may wish to perform several treatments approx. five days apart. From now till the end of summer the bees should be able to out breed the mites so usually the next treatment will be late summer. This of course assumes the initial mite load is near zero. YMMV.

 

[aran]

ill do the first round of 4-5 treatments in late march when the temps start to warm up.

 

[Tennessee's Bees LLC]

OAV does not have hard and fast temperature rules like formic acid. However, to be effective, the bees cannot be tightly clustered, so yeah, above 40°F would be best. OAV can be applied anytime honey supers are not present. A treatment applied now will kill all of the so called phoretic mites in the hive. If your hive already has capped brood, you may wish to perform several treatments approx. five days apart. From now till the end of summer the bees should be able to out breed the mites so usually the next treatment will be late summer. This of course assumes the initial mite load is near zero. YMMV.

:thumbsup:

 

[Sr. Tanya]

Thanks for all the help. I'm in southwestern PA (forgot to mention this). I thought I'd be too late to get this done. Usually the queen starts laying in February so there's probably some capped brood. I see that Aran does some treatments in March so will just keep a check on them.

 

[allniter]

SR. TANYA -FEBRUARY --If they have brood U just have to do 4 treatments a week apart

 

[Sr. Tanya]

Thanks, "alniter", wasn't certain how many times to do it with brood. We usually have some brood in February.

 

[mgolden]

SR. TANYA -FEBRUARY --If they have brood U just have to do 4 treatments a week apart

If there is brood, 4 or 5 days between treatments is far more effective. OAV crystals only last for about three days after treatment.

In my experience, a 7 day interval when brood is present will hold mites to current levels, but not reduce mite levels. I was counting the three day mite drop after OAV.

 

[Fivej]

For future reference, if you do a "one shot" treatment in winter before they brood up (for me around xmas), your hive will be virtually mite free until spring and you will have lower counts going into summer. In my case, I have been able to keep counts low until late summer when I treat with MAQS (formic acid). If the counts start climbing before my MAQS treatment, I can do a series as others have suggested, but I haven't had to so far. Keep in mind that you need to do a series if brood is present and you should not use OAV with honey supers on. There are ways around this that some find acceptable. J

 

[AstroZomBEE]

For future reference, if you do a "one shot" treatment in winter before they brood up (for me around xmas), your hive will be virtually mite free until spring and you will have lower counts going into summer. In my case, I have been able to keep counts low until late summer when I treat with MAQS (formic acid). If the counts start climbing before my MAQS treatment, I can do a series as others have suggested, but I haven't had to so far. Keep in mind that you need to do a series if brood is present and you should not use OAV with honey supers on. There are ways around this that some find acceptable. J

I completely agree with Fivej, if you can sneak in treatments on those warm days in January your initial mite numbers will be very low which will benefit you the rest of the year. It's also a very low impact miticide, i would vape every chance i got during the winter when we get those weird warm ups.

Aaron

 

[jim lyon]

I agree as well. I hit everything with a vape the week before Christmas and feel like that really hit the sweet spot this year as the queens had really started up in east Texas in early January. Hard to find a mite in anything right now.

 

[Fivej]

I should give credit to Enjambres (Nancy)for teaching me the benefits of the "one shot" method. J

 

[Eddie Honey]

I'm in Southern New Jersey:

I treat them right around or just after Thanksgiving and again around Ground Hog's Day.

We're always getting a warm day or two mixed in somewhere in these parts.


My swamp maples have blossomed up near the tops and my larger (3 deep) hives have brood.