BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER > DISEASE & PEST CONTROL
oxalic acid in feed
The15thMember:
--- Quote from: AR Beekeeper on August 03, 2019, 10:43:45 pm ---When oxalic acid is dribbled as a mite treatment a thin 1:1 syrup is used. The oxalic acid is bitter so a low sugar syrup helps prevent the bees from eating the syrup/acid mixture. If the bees eat much of the acid it kills the outright, or it damages them and reduces their life span. The syrup is just to get the oxalic acid to adhere to the bees body and contact the varroa mites.
When feeding bees it is best to stick to plain sugar syrup. It is a proven food that does no damage to the bees.
--- End quote ---
Thanks for commenting, AR. Your facts are quite welcome on a thread that has been all speculation until now. :happy:
van from Arkansas:
Thanks Phil and Member for the kind words.
DRobbins if enough Oxalic acid entered the bees blood stream the pH of the blood would immediately drop, become acidic and kill the bee. Blood is very sensitive to pH change, that is, a drop in tenths is lethal example from 7.5 down to 7.2 would be disastrous.
So Oxalic acid on the outside of a bee is working on eliminating Varroa. Quantitating the amount of Oxalic acid per bee would bee impossible. The queen eats constantly to keep up laying and a queen could easily be rationed 10X what a worker would consume of Oxalic acid. So again quantization would be impossible to predict per each bee.
Good thought, nice try, but keep at it and come up with another idea. We know lithium chlorine in a bee diet mixed with sugar syrup or water kills Varroa, 4mM is deadly to the mites. This is being studied this day.
Van
Michael Bush:
When people dribble oxalic acid it is the bees cleaning it up that seems to help with Varroa. But it also damages their "kidneys" (Malpighian tubules actually which serve that same purpose) and shortens their lives. I would not feed oxalic acid to bees. When a lot of bees were dying after being fed HFCS it was decided that it was a high pH that caused it. Too much acid is just as bad or worse for bees as food being too alkali.
The15thMember:
Thank you both Van and Michael Bush for responding. Your expertise is invaluable to us newbees.
Ben Framed:
--- Quote from: van from Arkansas on September 12, 2019, 11:34:36 pm ---Thanks Phil and Member for the kind words.
DRobbins if enough Oxalic acid entered the bees blood stream the pH of the blood would immediately drop, become acidic and kill the bee. Blood is very sensitive to pH change, that is, a drop in tenths is lethal example from 7.5 down to 7.2 would be disastrous.
So Oxalic acid on the outside of a bee is working on eliminating Varroa. Quantitating the amount of Oxalic acid per bee would bee impossible. The queen eats constantly to keep up laying and a queen could easily be rationed 10X what a worker would consume of Oxalic acid. So again quantization would be impossible to predict per each bee.
Good thought, nice try, but keep at it and come up with another idea. We know lithium chlorine in a bee diet mixed with sugar syrup or water kills Varroa, 4mM is deadly to the mites. This is being studied this day.
Van
--- End quote ---
"Good thought, nice try, but keep at it and come up with another idea. We know lithium chlorine in a bee diet mixed with sugar syrup or water kills Varroa, 4mM is deadly to the mites. This is being studied this day."
Any updates on this Mr Van? Anyone?
Phillip
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