At 02:20 PM 9/17/2005, Peter Edwards wrote:
>There are also freezing sprays used by plumbers to freeze water pipes while
>they work on them.  Would these do the job?  Most of us do not,
>unsurprisingly, have a stock of liquid nitrogen!


Peter, good idea, and I don't know the answer. But it would be easy to find
out.  We tried different amounts (quantity and time) of application of
liquid nitrogen, continued until follow up observations showed that ALL of
the treated brood was dead or frozen.  As a rule of thumb, if you dose and
then feel cold on the opposite side of the comb, you're probably cold
enough.  Frozen brood gets hard.

If you have a small temperature probe (most electronic gadget shops,
restaurant supplies, etc. sell a variety of small temp probes that are
relatively inexpensive), see if you've reached freezing temp inside the
brood (you will have to spear some).  Or, leave them a few days -- if the
bees haven't pulled them out, dead brood will start to decompose -- turn brown.

I'd be interested in hearing from anyone who tries this -- we're at the end
of our flying weather in Montana, so we're not likely to be able to test
this year.

I have NOT promoted use of liquid nitrogen by the general public because
its dangerous to handle -- pour it on your gloves and its likely to seep on
through, flash freezing your hand.  If you do use it, be sure that you wear
gloves and that the gloves are impervious to liquid penetration.

Jerry

-- Visit www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l for rules, FAQ and  other info ---