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Author Topic: Oxalic acid with screened bottom boards  (Read 6480 times)

Offline hydrocynus

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Oxalic acid with screened bottom boards
« on: March 20, 2022, 06:30:30 pm »
Hello all,
I am reviving an old thread as suggested by the automated message I received when I wanted to follow up. In a nutshell, I have learned that sublimating OA (I have made my own sublimator vaporizer like the Johno's Easy Vap) would eat the galvanized mesh even when applied from the supers (I thought supers had to be removed anyways during the application but it also looks like the rules are different from country to country. I am in the USA, FL).
I proudly stated in my original post that I made my screened bottom boards but time is lacking and they do not last very long unless I am maybe using treated wood. So, I will be switching to buying plastic bottom boards and was surprised that the cost is really high in the US (about $30+) compared to Europe (9.9 euros with VAT, same product though). I visit France every year, so, I am going to buy 20 on my next trip and have people visiting me get me some more. Some of those boards come with stainless steel mesh (solid bottoms also available). Would stainless steel survive OA treatments? I like screened boards.
Thanks for the answer.

PS. I am also reversing to using plastic covers as well (Ultimate hive covers from beesmart have been awesome for me. I especially like the fact that they add ventilation and that the light passes a bit through so that the hive is not totally dark. SHB hate light as you know although the past 3 years, I have been close to free of SHB. I will keep the hive bodies as wood. If I get 10-15 years of peacefulness, that is good enough for me. I have 30-40 hives.

Offline TheHoneyPump

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Oxalic acid with screened bottom boards
« Reply #1 on: March 26, 2022, 02:06:22 pm »
Yes. Stainless steel is acid resistant. Though not entirely acid proof. There are also different grades of SS, where some are more resistant than others.  You could simply rescreen the boards you made and get much longer life out of them.
If you want to be near 100% acid resistant, the plastic is the way to go. Though plastic introduces other issues, such as durability, cold weather brittleness, and UV degradation mainly.
I use solid boards.  Wood.  Wax dipped.  Some are 30 years old. 
When the lid goes back on, the bees will spend the next 3 days undoing most of what the beekeeper just did to them.

Offline Beeboy01

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Re: Oxalic acid with screened bottom boards
« Reply #2 on: March 31, 2022, 12:38:22 pm »
I've been using a wand type OAV through screened bottom boards for about four years. I'm using the regular #8 galvanized screen, not stainless steel screening and haven't had any rusting through of the galvanized screening yet. Unless the frame of the screened bottom board is made out of a material that won't rot like plastic going stainless for the screening seems to be an unnecessary expense.
   I have also noticed that the commercially available screened bottom boards that come from the big suppliers are made out of some really poor quality material and really don't last very long down here in Florida. I got frustrated swapping out screened bottom boards built out of pine every three years and switched over to some I made out of redwood and cedar.
   

 

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