Dear Rett, Tom and all others,
 
because you don't get any answer about your question, I think I'll try
to give you some advice from old Europe. The desciption of methods in
the subsequent lines is given without any guarantee for its
effectiveness
against AFB or safety to the user. It is just an information  n o t
an instruction.
 
In Germany we don't use any medicine as antibiotics for AFB. If AFB
flares up at a beeyard we have to "fight" it - but without medicine. (If
that is interesting to you I'll report about it at a later time.)
 
To kill AFB on infected equipment there are two traditional ways
 
         high temperatures or caustic soda solution
 
The first method is used for example to sterilize hives or wax. The wood
of the hives is burned with a gas burner till it changes the colour and
looks brown (not black) and the fibres of the wood beginn to burn. If
you
want to sterilize the wax you have to heat the pure wax up to 140-1600C
(about 300 degrees in the Fahrenheit scale). The wax has to be heated
w i t h o u t  any water! (It will sprinkle out and may hurt someone!)
One has to control the temperatur with a thermometer, take care of the
temperature because of the inflaming point (burning) of the wax at about
295 0C (about 563 degrees in the Fahrenheit scale). The wax can also be
sterilized under pressure with water vapore in a special autoclave
boiler.
 
If one uses equipment which cannot be heated to that temperature because
of melting for example then one uses caustic soda. To sterilize hives of
polystyrene foam we use caustic soda solution of 3-5 %. This solution is
rather dangerous for skin and your eyes. So one has to use gloves,
protective goggles and so on. After cleaning the equipment with the
caustic soda solution you have to wash it with pure water and let it
dry.
 
Sincerely
 
Reimund
Beekeeper in Germany (Bavaria)
Queen Rearing of Carniolan Bees
Insemination Station
 
> Rett Thorpe wrote:
> >
> > Could some sort of oven be made to bake AFB infected equipment?  What
> > temp is needed to kill AFB?
>
> A very specific question was asked.  I have asked this before and gotten
> the same lack of response.  What temperature is required, and for how
> long, to kill AFB spores?  Does anyone have this information?
> Apparently not, Rett.
 
> Tom
 
> --
> "Test everything.  Hold on to the good."  (1 Thessalonians 5:21)
>
> Tom Elliott
> Chugiak,  Alaska
> U.S.A.
> [log in to unmask]