Skyhook
Queen Bee
- Joined
- May 19, 2010
- Messages
- 3,053
- Reaction score
- 0
- Location
- Dorset
- Hive Type
- 14x12
- Number of Hives
- 5
Putting my hard hat on before asking Q ....
I was told last week by my instructor that oxalic acid treatments are bad for the queen, that if you are going to use it, it can only be used ONCE in the lifetime of a queen and it can often cause her to become drone laying and be superceded.
I have NO experience with oxalic acid, and no one locally I know here uses it as part of their varroa management. Is this possibly because we only now have resistant varroa in NI, and not in my area (that we know of)? Is oxalic something I am going to have to integrate into my varroa control from now on?
Thanks
This would seem to have been disproved. It seems that OA can be harmful to workers- the difference may be that the queen does not clean herself or any other bees, and therefore the workers ingest some while she does not.
The only exception (anecdotally) would seem to be that OA is the death-knell to a hive heavily infected with Nosema, though whether this is by killing the queen or by killing workers I don't know. It seems logical though- if ingested OA can damage the gut lining as is suggested, it's going to make easier access for the Nosema from the gut into the body.