Last night at a club meeting, new hobby beekeepers were told that if you 
don’t have a respirator, doing OAV (Oxalic Acid Sublimation) is fine as 
long as you are careful not to breath the vapors.  After hearing from 
one person who was present who is an adamant “label is the law” person, 
I’m left asking if US pesticide laws need a radical redoing.

On a Zoom call not too long ago, the Massachusetts State Apiarist, 
mentioned having to have someone certified in pesticide applications put 
mite treatments on the state’s hives.  I don’t want to pay someone to 
apply miticides to my hives.  As there is little to no enforcement of 
existing pesticide regulations, I don’t see great incentive for 
beekeepers to obey or even read the label.  I don’t want pesticide 
scofflaws in jail, fines might work but only if the people being fined 
remain keeping bees and changing their ways.

Enforcement currently only seems to occur if there is a big non-target 
kill or a honey contamination issue that poisons people; as far as I can 
tell it is virtually non-existent at the hobby level.

My vantage point is as a hobbyist and I’m very much aware that 
commercial beekeepers quite often make keeping their bees alive their 
number one priority.

Given that there is not a whole lot of profit potential with OA 
specifically, I’m wondering if the existing system can cope.  I 
appreciate Randy’s efforts at finding an alternative way to apply OA and 
doubly appreciate that he has the permits to do so.

Thoughts?


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