oxalic acid and kingspan?

[match]

I'm just looking into oa sublimation, and currently have a number of wide dummy boards in my hives made of kingspan, sealed with aluminium plumbers tape.

I was just wondering if anyone knows if it's safe to use oa on kingspan, or if something nasty is going to happen to the foam and/or aluminium foil?

Would be a pain to have to remove them all before treatment, but better than destroying them!

 

[Plenty of honey]

I'm just looking into oa sublimation, and currently have a number of wide dummy boards in my hives made of kingspan, sealed with aluminium plumbers tape.

I was just wondering if anyone knows if it's safe to use oa on kingspan, or if something nasty is going to happen to the foam and/or aluminium foil?

Would be a pain to have to remove them all before treatment, but better than destroying them!

It will affect anything like that, but if its just once you wont suddenly a massive problem. next time, for your partitions, just use some styrofoam inserted in to empty frames but paint it with a normal accepted paint for poly nuc. i use smooth masonry paint, bees dont eat or chew it and it costs nothing really.

Peace of mind for next time you start vaping.
It will easily start to digest flooring of galvanised mesh. I use stainless in my nucs, expensive but never corrodes.

 

[Gilberdyke John]

I'm just looking into oa sublimation, and currently have a number of wide dummy boards in my hives made of kingspan, sealed with aluminium plumbers tape.

I was just wondering if anyone knows if it's safe to use oa on kingspan, or if something nasty is going to happen to the foam and/or aluminium foil?

Would be a pain to have to remove them all before treatment, but better than destroying them!

Aluminum or other metals will corrode but not at a particularly rapid rate. I've not used sublimation with kingspan or equivalent but I'd be wary of having the heater close to the material purely on heat damage effects.
I've noticed slight corrosion of galvanized mesh flooring but a brush with a wire brush and a spray with aluminium paint on the affected area soon restores the protection. Maybe a trial run would be in order, or a comparison between a straight kingspan part and one with a coat of paint would be in order?

 

[madasafish]

No impact on Celotex - similar to Kingspan - over two years..

 

[match]

Thanks for all the advice - I just checked and I actually used celotex brand boards, not kingspan, so good to know it's been tried ad tested!

Will report back after in case it's useful for anyone else to know how I got on...

 

[madasafish]

Thanks for all the advice - I just checked and I actually used celotex brand boards, not kingspan, so good to know it's been tried ad tested!

Will report back after in case it's useful for anyone else to know how I got on...

Where bees are in contact with Celotex, I tend # to paint it with smooth masonry paint to reduce the chances of the bees chewing it. But if they are short of space, they WILL chew it.. paint or none.

# but often have no paint so don't...

 

[Brigsy]

Has anyone put anything else on the outside after the aluminium foil? I have painted it but the edges of the tape are lifting slightly and looks a bit ratty.

 

[madasafish]

Has anyone put anything else on the outside after the aluminium foil? I have painted it but the edges of the tape are lifting slightly and looks a bit ratty.

Two coats of Aldi metal paint seem to work well.(And it dries fast and is cheap)

 

[Brigsy]

Top tip! Thanks

 

[match]

Just realised I never replied to this thread as I promised!

I used sublimation of apibioxal on several hives shortly after my original question, all with celotex dummy boards (cut edges covered in aluminium pulmbing tape) and there was no discernable change to the boards after treatment, and no sign of any problems with the bees.

Thanks again for all the advice!