I reviewed the oxalic vaporization process with a PhD chemist I know
well as a friend. I posted my discussion with him here last fall and it
should be in the archives.
Long story short a direct inhaltion is quite serious and could have
permanent heatlh effects. He suggested I wear a NIOSH approved
respirator which I do while working with the vaporizer. .
What is more appealing about vaporization then the liquid trickle
method is if you have hundreds of hives and want to wait for the
broodless period you do not need to open the hives up in cold
weather.
The way I see it is if I want to use oxalic I need to get my hives into
November and the broodless period. We are using apiguard this year
(once instead of 2 treatments) to treat only hives with higher mite
levels. The rest wait til November when all hives are treated with oxalic
vaporization..
Its a bit risky in the sense you must rely on mite levels to decide what
to treat early and what can wait. Weather here in Mn during November
can historically vary all over the board. Can't see counting on being
able to open a hive in November to trickle so I go with vaporization.
If the weather turns real cold I can still wait for a break in the weather
(mid 30's) and treat any time in early winter. We wrap bees here for
winter too and thats another issue that makes late broodless
treatment a problem and the trickle method impractical. I'd like to wrap
once feeding is done in mid October and come back later in
November for oxalic.
So here in Minnesota vaporization makes sense, is cheap and in my
experience works very well.
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