65 ready made

[mark s]

Hi all
and a happy new year.

Ive got a 6% solution of oxilic acid all ready made shop bought, but have been told this is to strong to use,simple question is, what is the easiest way to dilute it please
thanx mark

 

[Winker]

there are a 101 threads on here discussing that very same question. I suggest binning it and making your own to 3.2%

 

[Monsieur Abeille]

Dilute with 1:1 sugar syrup if you feel the need

 

[drstitson]

the key is that however you dilute it you shouldn't end up with less than 30% sugar solution.

 

[johnfly]

Mark s,
i bought some from maise mores at 6%, i have phoned them twice now, last time i spoke to the boss man, they use it on their hives as it is, he said you can weaken it if you want but they use it as it is, if they have no problem why should we? i have used it on some of mine cannot see any ills yet,

 

[gavin]

Oh, if only I could have been first to respond.

Folk use that strength and get away with it. Converting it to the usual strength is probably safer.

If you have 1 litre, add 500g sugar and 34 ml water and you will be at the usual 4.5%/3.2% and in 1:1 syrup. You need all that sugar to go from 30% to 1:1, the volume rises, and you need only a little water to reduce the 6% to 4.5% oxalic (of the crystalline form, and some people call it 3.2% anhydrous).

That is the only way to arrive at the right strength in 1:1 syrup, and it is easy to do. The total volume will rise from 1 litre to over 1.3 litres.

Finman will probably now accuse me of talking rubbish and there may also be 101 other suggestions offered, but really, this is right.

 

[gavin]

the key is that however you dilute it you shouldn't end up with less than 30% sugar solution.

Nope, I disagree. Increasing the sugar concentration seems to be an important part of the effectiveness and the bee safety.

Yes, you can use it as it is and you might not see much difference. But studies show that the 6% in 30% syrup is far from the ideal.

That's me finished on this thread now. Take it or leave it. You now know how to convert it to the same as Trickle2 from Thorn*s or the recipe you can read in the NZ booklet or on Dave Cushman's web site. The usual 75+1000+1000 recipe.

 

[mark s]

Thanx all

 

[dilys]

Ive got a 6% solution of oxilic acid all ready made shop bought.

If it was sold as bee treatment it is probably premixed with sugar. The label often says 6% but they mean that the original solution was at 6% before the sugar had been added for treating bees. By the time it's bottled for sale at bee suppliers the mix has been fully prepared for the hive.

I haven't seen any premixed stuff for a few years but the label was always confusing and caused me to throw away the one and only bottle I have bought and have mixed my own ever since.

I wouldn't taste it to see if the sugar has been added - I would just chuck it and trust yourself to weigh out 3 dirt cheap components and mix them together. I would follow Gavin's recipe and do it PDQ. I did all mine before Christmas as the queens may well be laying by now - especially if they've got exotic genes in them.

Dil

 

[johnfly]

If it was sold as bee treatment it is probably premixed with sugar. The label often says 6% but they mean that the original solution was at 6% before the sugar had been added for treating bees. By the time it's bottled for sale at bee suppliers the mix has been fully prepared for the hive.

I haven't seen any premixed stuff for a few years but the label was always confusing and caused me to throw away the one and only bottle I have bought and have mixed my own ever since.

I wouldn't taste it to see if the sugar has been added - I would just chuck it and trust yourself to weigh out 3 dirt cheap components and mix them together. I would follow Gavin's recipe and do it PDQ. I did all mine before Christmas as the queens may well be laying by now - especially if they've got exotic genes in them.

Dil

why are people saying to throw this 6% away, you got rid of yours without even trying it, now telling others to get rid,
if it was harming the bees someone would of said by now, but i have seen no coments saying it had hamed their bees.
I would of thought by now that if this 6% was doing harm you would of had some offical or expert saying so, but if you want to spend money then throw it away carry on, as i said before, i phoned the supplier about it, they use it on their hives with no harm done and i had no harmto the bees from it last year.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Any minute now I'm expecting Finman to storm in on this one!!

 

[BeeJayBee]

Ive got a 6% solution of oxilic acid all ready made shop bought, but have been told this is to strong to use,simple question is, what is the easiest way to dilute it please

I've read, somewhere or other, that this solution is 6% oxalic acid dihydrate, which I believe is makes it less strong than if it was 6% oxalic acid.

 

[RoofTops]

I hesitate to add to this discussion, which has been thrashed to death elsewhere, but a 6% solution will not kill your colony - but it is likely to kill more bees than a 3.2% solution for the same amount of varroa killed. I suspect this is why the supplier says they have not noticied any problems - they wouldn't unless they did some carefully controlled trials.

 

[thurrock bees]

i one strength i use is 5% and ive used that strength for years and had no problem. If you worried ( which i would not be) add some sugar syrup to it but remember the weaker it is the less effective it is.
TB

 

[gavin]

I hesitate to add to this discussion, which has been thrashed to death elsewhere, but a 6% solution will not kill your colony - but it is likely to kill more bees than a 3.2% solution for the same amount of varroa killed. I suspect this is why the supplier says they have not noticied any problems - they wouldn't unless they did some carefully controlled trials.

C'mon John, I know that the scientific literature uses both the concentrations given as the dihydrate (weight/volume) in syrup and the anhydrous equivalent (weight/volume) in syrup but using the different ways of expressing it in one short post confuses everyone. Unless you really did mean 3.2% OA dihydrate which I doubt. I've seen this confusion posted in several places (including the 'other side').

Italian recipe:

6% OA dihydrate (or 4.6% anhydrous equivalent) (w/v) in 30% syrup

Most popular recipe:

4.5% OA dihydrate (or 3.2% anhydrous equivalent) (w/v) in 1:1 syrup.

It isn't a near doubling but +33% difference in oxalic between the two.

Molecular weight of dihydrate - 126.06
Molecular weight of anhydrous OA - 90.03

Ooops ... said that I was done .... such a sucker for a misleading post!

G.