Hive hygiene

[Honeysuckle]

What do people use to clean their hive tools between the inspections of colonies? I use soda crystals in water and a Brillo to scrub tools and hands between inspections - but is this enough to get rid of any nasties that may be lurking...Thank you!

 

[Erichalfbee]

Just washing soda.
I reckon one apiary is one hive.
Now between apiaries is another matter. Hive tool in dishwasher; suit gets washed too

 

[Nige.Coll]

blowtorch kills everything.

 

[itma]

What do people use to clean their hive tools between the inspections of colonies? I use soda crystals in water and a Brillo to scrub tools and hands between inspections - but is this enough to get rid of any nasties that may be lurking...Thank you!

Washing between hives will certainly greatly reduce beekeeper-transfer of bio-nasties.
Well worth doing. Not everyone does.

It won't deal with 100% of everything. Longer soaking helps. So some have plural hive tools and take a different one out of the bucket for the next hive. I know people who put some bleach into their bucket, and a couple of drops of washing up liquid has also been recommended.
NBU/Beebase advice is just washing soda 1:5 with water ... and changed before it looks really manky!



As Erica notes, best practice is to have different kit for different apiary sites.