Oxalic Acid just got BETTER & Cheaper!

Over the past decade, a French company held a near-monopoly on the only legalized oxalic acid in the U.S. for beekeeping. This allowed them to hike prices, while more affordable and purer oxalic acid options were available elsewhere, like on Amazon, for a fraction of the cost.

The monopoly lasted largely due to the tangled web of EPA regulations and state-level approvals for oxalic acid. Each state has to approve a new brand, and often, that approval hinges on annual payments from the primary company. For instance, California still hasn’t approved Api Bioxal for sale, despite having had the funding for years.

From a business standpoint, I spent several years trying to buy directly from the French company to bring prices down in our stores. But only the top three companies by purchase volume were allowed to buy directly, no matter how many customers we had or how far our reach extended in the beekeeping community. This didn’t sit well with me.

In response, I had to buy their product through a middleman and sold it with just a $1 markup. Even then, it was still significantly more expensive than the off-brand oxalic acid available. My goal was to offer a more affordable option to beekeepers, even if it meant battling their monopoly.

Then, a new player entered the field: Mike’s Bees LLC, a small Ohio-based company run by a veteran I met while attending beekeeping events at Nature’s Image Farm. Mike introduced the idea of using oxalic acid tablets instead of powder for vaporizers, making the loading process faster and more efficient, especially with our Oxalic Acid Vaporizers.

I was hesitant at first. Oxalic acid is tightly regulated in the honeybee treatment space because of the presence of human-consumable food in the hives. The tablets contained a binder to hold their shape, which Mike couldn’t disclose due to trade secrets. While I admired his enthusiasm, I was wary of selling anything without full transparency, wanting to stick as closely as possible to the “label is the law” principle.

After some time, Mike reached out to say his company was working with officials in D.C. and starting the process to get certified. I was skeptical, given how long the French company had dominated the market. But he pushed forward, got his main approval, and was soon submitting for state approvals—and succeeding. It was incredible to witness a small U.S. company finally making headway against a much larger overseas competitor.

Mike eventually made his pitch to me: his oxalic acid product could beat the competition on price and make it profitable for us to sell. No more razor-thin profit margins. We were thrilled—the cheaper EPA-certified oxalic acid becomes, the more affordable it is for beekeepers to treat their hives using our vaporizers.

While some beekeepers might opt for cheaper alternatives like wood bleach or off-brand oxalic acid from Amazon, the reality is that without proper testing, you can’t be sure what other chemicals might be mixed in. When people ask me what they should do, I usually say something like, “You’re already investing in a top-of-the-line vaporizer like the InstantVap. The cost difference between off-brand oxalic acid and EPA-certified EZ-OX is about $0.10 per colony. Is it really worth skimping on the chemical itself?”

Most of the time, people see the bigger picture. A few extra dollars for certified, quality oxalic acid ensures a good treatment for their hives.

Now, we proudly sell only EZ-OX, supporting a fellow small business and making treatments more affordable for beekeepers—one treatment at a time. EZ-OX is now available in all but three states, and our customers love the quality and trust that comes with an EPA-certified product.