A year ago I did experiments where I fogged water solutions of oxalic acid.  I did a treatment once a week for several weeks and found mite counts totally unaffected by the treatment.  Treated hives had counts by an alcohol wash just as high as the untreated controls.

I have also done some experiments testing what happens to ethanol when run thru a fogger.  Fogger conditions are set up perfectly to cause the water gas reaction.  Sure enough, I saw lots of evidence of some really ugly chemicals being produced from ethanol by passage thru the fogger.  I sure as heck do not want those chemicals in my hives or showing up in my honey.  I strongly suspect some of those ethanol decomposition products will be carcinogens.  In fact it would be amazing if they are not.  I saw enough without even adding any oxalic acid to the mix that I knew I would never use the process and never suggest anyone else should use it either.

I also looked at potential explosion issues due to putting ethanol and ethanol decomposition products into the hive.  I found you could get ignition, but the pressure produced was so low all you got was a bit of a "Whoosh" sound that did not lift the lid nor blow out the candle used inside the hive as an ignition source.  Three ignitions over the course of a few minutes was only enough heat to mildly warm the plastic foundation in the hive.

As there is a danger involved in honey contamination with unknown toxic organics produced by the water gas reaction and as no one has demonstrated that this application actually kills any mites I would suggest it is not very smart to use it.  You are also breaking the law by introducing an unregistered formulation into your hive.

Dick

HL Mencken said: "The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed — and hence clamorous to be led to safety — by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary. "

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