Guilfordbeekeepers.org

Just finished third (weekly) mite treatment on 6 hives. Oxalic acid vaporized with an insect fogger . This is my fourth year using this method. I treat them once a month through out the year and 3 consecutive weeks in Nov/Dec. Have lost only one hive over winter in the past three years. May be just luck. Costs about a dollar a hive to treat. Takes about 45 minutes to treat 6 hives with prep and cleanup.

I think you got lucky as this particular method had been discussed at length in various bee forums including beesource (e.g., https://www.beesource.com/threads/alter ... st-1845479). Unfortunately, efficacy of this method is questionable at best. You may want to consider other proven Oxalic Acid Vaporization methods (e.g., ProVap,Varrox)

Alternatively, you may want to do an alcohol wash after fogging in late summer when mite levels are high to test its efficacy. I built my own provap (https://www.beesource.com/threads/band- ... er.332394/) and have been using successfully for the past two years or so. My treatment cost per hive should be just pennies, I think.

I do feel lucky.

Thanks for the links. I am using 80 proof vodka and Oxalic. Never tried water or mineral oil. I'll keep trying this and let you know how it goes.

You are right, my luck ran out. 4 of the six hives are dead. The two remaining are doing well, population wise. The four that died did not starve, all had large stores. Did not check for queens last fall so some may have not had good queens. I guess that leaves mites as the usual suspect.I used my wand vaporizer today on the remaining two. Maybe I'll take a stab at making a ProVap type this year.

Sorry to hear about your losses. If you decide built your own "provap", I will be happy to help.

Thanks for the offer to help.