Oxalic Acid Talk

A few beetles are normal. A slimed-out hive is not. What small hive beetles look like, how they reproduce, the traps that work, and why beetle damage almost always starts with a weak, mite-stressed colony.

Webbing, tunnels and frass across your comb. Wax moths didn't kill the colony; they moved in after something else did. How to identify them, protect stored comb, and fix the real cause.

Half a cup of nurse bees, 60 seconds of shaking, one number that tells you whether to treat. The alcohol wash step by step, with thresholds by season.

An empty hive with no pile of dead bees looks like they left. Usually they didn't. How to tell true absconding from a varroa collapse, and what to do next.

A reddish-brown dot the size of a pinhead, hiding where you can't see it. What varroa mites look like, how their life cycle works, and why the only early warning is a wash.

Bees with crumpled wings are the most visible sign of varroa. Here's what deformed wing virus is, why it's really a mite problem, what the newest research says, and the steps that stop it.

A new package has no brood, so every mite that came with it is exposed. One well-timed oxalic acid vaporization can clean the colony before its first brood is capped. Here is when and how much.

A freshly hived swarm has no capped brood, so every mite is exposed. One oxalic acid vaporization at the right moment can clean the whole colony. Here is exactly when.

The legal max is now 4 g per brood box, but most beekeepers get their results from 2 g on the right schedule. Here is the dose we recommend, how brood changes the number of treatments, and the two best treatment days of the year.