gonna treat with oxalic tomorrow,will they be ok?

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biglongdarren

Drone Bee
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this will be my first time treating with oxalic,i will be doing my own hives and a few of a neighbours bees who'd i think have never been treating with anything,i dont know very many near me who use oxalic and alot still stay they wouldnt use it on there bees as it is very hard on them,if i do everything to the book they should be fine right? be just my luck for it to go wrong and kill all the neighbours bees:eek:
Darren.
 
Given the choice I would treat two weeks ago but I will be treating two hives on wednesday (not mine, owner away until recently), not ideal but happy doing it. I would not go past 3rd week in Jan. I think there is about 5 week window. 15 Dec to 21 Jan ball park (changes for everyone location) for me.
 
my bees were treated with apiguard in the autumn,maybe i should just leave them alone then?
Darren
 
this is a decision for all beekeepers to make. I treat mine, Dad does not. I am fearful I will have to bail him out next year but would be happy to be proved wrong. What do have to loose by treating?
 
What do have to loose by treating?

Depends upon how the Oxalic Acid is administered...................!
 
I have taken the view for quite few years now that oxalic acid syrup dribbling is simple and safe to do, so I do it. Many of the other 'measures' have more issues. Having spent many hrs deciding whether I can easily monitor varroa levels accurately I came to the conclusion that my best efforts were at best inaccurate and at worst wrong, so I treat anyway as it is safe (there is sheds loads of good research out there to read IF you want to). I also do three other varroa reduction methods as well at different times of the year in different circumstances. Never have all your eggs in one (thymol) basket.....:rolleyes: Multiple anti varroa events based on different strategies is the way forward.
 
nearly all my hives are solid based.
Darren

Makes no difference to monitoring Darren, all you need is a sheet of paper on the solid floor, we have all been there...:cool: It will tell you the drop.
 
Thymol on its own is not enough to control varroa which is why you need to follow up with OA trickle in winter. Just do it and ignore the siren voices!

Other measures applied during the year will help but the basics are thymol followed by OA syrup. Start with that regime and you will get on top of varroa.
 
In the minority I know... I use a Varox Vapouriser ( other types of vaporisers are available!)

One thing I have noticed is that the mite is stony cold DEAD when the drop is monitored if a vaporiser is used... can not say for trickle.

However the mite drop with Apigaaard seems to have a number of live mites dropped.. hence OMF
 
However the mite drop with Apigaaard seems to have a number of live mites dropped.. hence OMF

Apiguard is not a very effective treatment,compared to some other thymol & EO based treatments.
 
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If you don't treat them, and you lose your bees, you'll wish you had.
 
I also do three other varroa reduction methods as well at different times of the year

You only use three others? I am surprised.

Spring thymol, shook swarm, A/S, brood culling, drone culling, Formic acid, autumn thymol (apiguard, Apilife-Var, thymol by other means), Oxalic spraying, oxalic sublimation, sugar rolling are just some of the others available.

I choose the most appropriate method at the time and do not rely on any particular method excepting the most regular one - autumn thymol treatment ('by other means' in my case) just prior to the winter bee population brooding cycles.

Others, I am afraid, rely on the so called 'hive sanitisers' (throughout the year?) for colony protection; I most certainly don't!

So I use one, any or all of those ten options, not just restrict myself to three.

RAB

PS never used lactic acid and there are still apistan, bayvarol strips to fall back on (with consideration of mite resistance to the pesticide, of course).
 
someone mentioned the `5 week window`until the 21st jan. What happens after this date, is it not effective?
 

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