The best time to use the MiteBlaster is when the hive is broodless. OA only kills mites on the bees, it can't penetrate the cell caps to get to the mites on the brood. 

Ok so when is the hive broodless?

1. If you know your hive swarmed (see them leave) wait 19 days and treat when all the brood has emerged, but the new queen isn't laying yet.
2. When you catch a swarm. I usually wait a few days so they wont abscond, but before they can cap any brood. No more than a week

3. When you install a package in a new hive. Same as a swarm. Wait a few days
4. When you make a split and just removed most of the capped brood.

5. Treat the nucs made from the split 19 days later when all the brood has emerged, but the new queen isn't laying yet.
6. In the middle of winter. Bees are usually broodless around the winter solstice.
 
 

   The second best time to use the MiteBlaster is late August to late September before the bees go into winter. What you are trying to achieve is some good healthy mite free brood that will be hatching out to carry you through the winter. It also helps to get the population high to keep the hive warm in the coming months. Don't neglect this treatment or your bees may not survive the winter. Since there's alot of capped brood present this time of year you need to treat them 3 times a week apart.

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   In addition to the broodless times mentioned above, I usually treat all of my hives 3 times in late summer (very important), once around the solstice for cleanup and 3 more times when the maple & elms start blooming in the spring. I suggest you do your own research, but this works for me. I don't do alcohol washes, sugar rolls, sticky board mite counts or anything like that. I treat all my hives the same.

   Of course if at any time you see evidence of varroa mite transmitted disease, such as dwarf wings or bee paralysis, treat all of your hives immediately with 3 consecutive treatments a week apart.

Yes. OA occurs naturally in honey and the bees clean it all out of the hive within a few days. However I would not advise it. There's better times to treat your bees than during a good nectar flow. Sometimes I have supers on when I treat in the late summer, but I leave those on all winter for the bees. Of course again in the case of disease go ahead and treat them.

Because you didn't treat them for mites back in September! Well, either that or they starved to death. A pile of dead bees in the bottom of the hive with dead bees headfirst in the comb looking for honey is a good indication that they starved to death. Mite kills are usually just a few hundred dead bees on the bottom board with none or very few in the cells. May or may not have honey present depending on if it got robbed. If you're lucky the wax moths & hive beetles haven't found it yet in which case it would be a chewed up slimey maggot infested mess. Bottom line.... if you treat your bees for mites and they have plenty to eat going into winter, it will save you alot of grief, hard work & shame (Bad Beekeeper!!!) in the spring, not to mention the loss of a honey crop from that hive for that year. You want a strong thriving colony going into spring to get maximum production and all that begins in September.

Your Oxalic acid has moisture in it. OA readily absorbs moisture from the air and it eeds to be kept in a tightly sealed container in a dry location. If you have moisture in there don't throw it out. Put it in a room with a dehumidifier running with the lid off or in a box with a lamp in it until it is dried out.

Cesius

The MiteBlaster is different from other similar designed vaporizers in that, all the other vaporizers pipe the OA vapor out the top and down the outside of the reaction chamber where it could potentially re-crystallize and clog the pipe so they turn the temp up a little higher to compensate. The MiteBlaster vaporizes the OA which then goes through the heated plug ensuring it stays vaporized until it comes out the end of the 1/4" tube so it runs at a lower temperature. I started out with the temp set to 230C and then decided to turn it down. If you heat the OA too much it begins to degrade into noxious bee killing compounds so to be safe I would go with the lower temp, but then sometimes if you have alot of hives and you're moving fast you might want to turn it up just a little.

Yes, the temperature controller will work with voltage as low as 100 volts. I use 3 - 100ft extension cords when I use mine.

Yes. The MiteBlaster uses less than 300 watts of power so any 300 watt or above power inverter will do. The MiteBlaster, being a resistive load, does not require an expensive "true sine wave" inverter.

Yes, the MiteBlaster is warrantied against defects in workmanship for 30 days (full refund or replacement). After that, free parts and labor for one year as long as the device has been used according to directions. The relay contacts in the temperature controller are rated for 10 million operations. The heater bands are rated for 300C continuous duty.

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