Hi there, I would like to vape my hives with oxalic acid. How can I do this effectively without great expense. I have had a look on the net and found a couple of home made gadgets, but the one fella burnt the front of his hive?????. Any help would be appreciated.
Dave, your profile shows
3 hives.
Rather than invest in a vaporiser AND personal protection kit, my suggestion is that you
bite the bullet and pay £6 (plus postage) for this year's treatment - trickling Oxalic rather than vaporising it.
Thornes sell ready-to-use solution in a special dispenser bottle which they call Trickle2 - at £3 for enough for 2 hives.
If you want to push the boat out, spend another £1 on a spare (empty) bottle so you can practice with the dispenser (using plain water, into the sink).
Only downside is the short (just weeks) shelf life of any ready-to-use mix.
Wash out the empty bottles and keep them for the future.
When you have a few more hives (or a local group working together), you can mix your own - and refill those dispenser bottles.
Only when you have LOTS of hives does vaporisation make any sort of
economic sense. Setting fire to hives with homemade kit is the least of your worries -- the fumes are very dangerous to humans.
For 3 hives, trickling is the sensible way to apply Oxalic.
/// postage can be shared with other local beeks, or you could get it as part of a January Sale order (which always goes over the £100 free postage threshold!)