Formic Acid DIY

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Katikati
Experience
Commercial
We've in the past played with flash treatment using pads and formic. Mixed results and not well recorded. In a time before wash testing using the Crowley Cup. We'd probably try again as we have a lot of Formic in stock... And better able to monitor effectiveness.
Anyone currently using a Formic approach?
And, we know it's dangerous product requiring respect.
 
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Alastair

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Auckland
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Semi Commercial
I had great success with Formic, using nasenheider dispensers, and posted on here about it several years ago.

Need to dig back in archives.

OK, done. Found this thread from 2012. Unfortunately the poictures posted have disapeared, I think that was because Photobucket started to want an inordinate amount of money to maintain them.

I'm also not sure if it's the thread I discussed nasenheider in but will search that out later when I have time.

No state secrets, happy to share.

 
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Alastair

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Auckland
Experience
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OK I did a bit more searching, the thread I linked couple posts ago was not the Nassenheider one. I found this old thread from back in 2015 where I described my experience with using formic acid via Nassenheider units.

Won't run through the whole thing here cos the thread has it, but the basics are it was highly successful, and better than the flash treatments. The acid was dispensed over a 6 week period into the hive, and was at least as successful as synthetic strips.

Problems and my reason for not continuing with this method was over time it dissolved all nails in the hive, the lid, and frame wires if wooden frames were used. However now, when the effectiveness of synthetic strips is coming into doubt, the problem with the nails could be overcome by using resistant nails, might have to do some experimentation to find the right nails.

Anyhow, here's the thread

 


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