When to vaporize?

[DaveKow]

I got this friend  ;) :-D :evil: from some other country.  With the help of a couple friends at work, he made himself a vaporizer. 



He wants to know what is the best time of day to vaporize with oxalic acid?  What happens when the foragers return?  How pissy are they when you open the hive back up?  Does 2 minutes sound about right for the time it takes to vaporize the acid?

Thanks.

[alfred]

I also have such a friend.... :roll:    He says that it is the best to do it early in the morning when all are still home. Better yet on a cold day when all are going to stay home anyway. Better than that do it in the winter when the brood is at it's least.

If you do it in the summer you will have to do it again once a week for a couple (3?) of times to catch the brood cycles.  You want to get them all so they all need to be in, that's why early in the morning. After vaporizing you want to keep them sealed in for ... I think it is 10 min.

   After 10min or so  just remove the towels or wading or whatever you have used to close them in. They do get a little angry but not as bad as I thought they would.

   There are several others who have done this here. Some who live in places where it is OK to treat your mites in this manner and not just be Bleaching the wooden ware. I'm sure that you will get much advice.
Alfred

[Irwin]

Robo and Cindi do vaporizing you can ask them they are very helpfull give them a PM.

[Michael Bush]

>He wants to know what is the best time of day to vaporize with oxalic acid? 

Anytime is fine.  Most of the Varroa are in the brood nest on the nurse bees and they are there all the time.

>What happens when the foragers return?

Nothing.

> How pissy are they when you open the hive back up?

I don't see much difference.

>  Does 2 minutes sound about right for the time it takes to vaporize the acid?

No.  I think it should take longer.  Maybe you could slow it down somehow.  A resister, a heat sink...

[danno]

Run a test on your vaporizer while watching your watch.  Just stand up wind add 2 grams and plug it in.   Most are complete in 60 seconds.  As for sealing the hive go to the carpet store and get a scrap of padding.  Cut 2 inch strips for the main enterance and use duct tape for cracks and upper enterances.  When my friend does it he uses 20 ft of lamp cord with battery clamps on one end.  This  keeps him  up wind and in his case is long enough to reach his truck most of the time.  When the truck isn't close enough a small 12 volt motorcycle battery is used.   After the burn time the burner is pulled but the hive is resealed for 10 minutes.  A wet rag or spong is used to cool the burner before reloading for the next hive.   I thought that i would see vapor pouring out of the hive but there was none.  The bee's actually seemed more calm when the hive was opened 10 minutes later.   As for the time of day, mornings, evening and bad weather works the best but it can be done at any time the temp is 40 degs or higher and can be done once a week.   If there is alot of brood it should be done 3 times at 5 -7 day intervals.  Mite fall is also not as fast as I thought it would be.   It kills alot  of mites but some take a couple of days to drop.