Embracing Oxalic Shop Towels for Mite-Free Bliss!

Hey Bee Enthusiasts! 🌼✨ Have you heard about Randy Oliver’s latest experiment with oxalic acid-soaked shop towels to battle those pesky varroa mites?

If not, you’re in for a treat with his new results. Let’s dive into this exciting approach.

This method shows great promise in effectively treating varroa without harming our precious bees, equipment, or the environment.

Here’s the lowdown: Blue shop towels soaked in a mix of oxalic acid, glycerin, and water are placed above the broodnest.

Treating with oxalic acid in this way provides a more extended exposure, requires less effort than both dribbling and evaporating, and is likely safer during application.

Believe it or not, this isn’t an entirely new concept. Decades ago, beekeepers experimented with distributing food-grade mineral oil and essential oils similarly. Even a Canadian oxalic evaporator manufacturer offered oxalic-soaked strips similar to Randy’s shop towels, although they were never put to the test.

Now, if you ever stumbled upon saturated blue shop towels inside a hive in the past, it likely meant someone was up to no good. Those usually contained a mix of questionable chemicals and a hefty dose of ignorance, resulting in contaminated equipment, mites that became immune to pesticides, and an unhealthy beekeeper.

The task of cleaning up the disgraceful legacy of blue shop towels falls on someone honest, bright, selfless, and community-focused. If anyone can do it, it’s Randy Oliver. Kudos to him for taking on this challenge and sharing his findings with us!

Thanks, Randy, for your dedication to the beekeeping community. We’re all buzzing with gratitude!

-Cheers, D 🌿🐝