Yes, this same thing happened to a friend of mine last year, and he forwarded this same Honey Bee Suite posting to me. His hive in question survived and recovered well enough to swarm later in the season. In my own experience, I have not had a fire problem, nor seen an issue with bees being incinerated by the vaporizer head.

In using the wand-style vaporizers, it is important to ensure that the head is not near any burr comb hanging down from the lower frames. As recommended in the post, scrape it off with a hive tool before using the vaporizer. Also, the head should be kept a few millimeters off of the bottom board so as not to scorch it or cause a fire. Some of the vaporizer models are engineered the ensure this slight elevation. I attached a couple of small binder clips to the rod of mine, near the head, angled so that they keep the head slightly off the bottom board.

As also noted in the post, a respirator mask is very important. A few of the equipment suppliers now sell various 3M models. After trying a half face-piece model and plastic goggles, which did not work as well as I had hoped, I purchased a 3M full face piece mask (model #6800) and the 60926 filter cartridges, which are also useful for formic acid, which can be noxious as well. This set-up works much better for me, though is about the same total cost as a typical vaporizer wand, thus doubling the upfront cost. Blue nitrile gloves (8 mil) are also a good idea.

John

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