This is the vaporizer that I used. I chose it because it has a replaceable Bosch heating element.

Oxalic Acid 12V Vaporizer

I purchased my Oxalic Acid from Amazon here:

Oxalic Acid

This is the 12V power source I used to power the vaporizer. I simply attached a power cord and a couple pieces of 12GA copper wire to the + and - terminals. I then clipped the two terminal clamps on the vaporizer.

You can get one here:

12V 30A Power Supply

Note that a 12V battery will work as well. I have a bad back so I am not going to lug around a 50Lb car battery.

For my respirator, I chose this one. It is a half mask so it easily fits inside a bee veil very comfortably.

I got mine here:

P100 Half Mask Respirator

If you decide to use another mask just make sure its a P100 mask.

The long hive tool I purchased here:

Long Hive Tool

As mentioned above, I am using a 12V 30A power supply I purchased from Amazon.

I have attached a power cord and to two pieces of copper wire for the heating element terminal clamps.

I have also drilled a small hole in the vaporizer so that I could install a high temp sensor to connect to this readout. This is not necessary. I only did it because I could, and may possible do some PID experiments later.

Before using the vaporizer on the hive, you need to perform a test to determine how long it takes your setup to fully vaporize the Oxalic acid.

You use 1/4 tsp of Oxalic acid for a single brood section and 1/2 tsp for 2 or more.

In my case I will be treating 2 sections so I used 1/2 tsp.

Here I have added the Oxalic acid to the small cutout in the vaporizer and connected the vaporizer to the power supply.

After a couple minutes the solid Oxalic acid boils and turns to gas.

In my case it took about 5 minutes for the Oxalic acid to fully vaporize. This is the time I will use when treating the hive.

Since I want to remove the Varroa tray and clean the bottom of my hive, I find it best to remove all the frames.

I place the frames in this frame holder that I made.

Once all the frames are removed, I remove the first two support rods and pry the varroa tray out of the hive.

This is the first time since installing the bee package that I have removed the whole tray. All I can say is that its nasty. Will have to do this more often in the future.

I use the long handled hive tool to scrape the bottom of the hive. As nasty as it was, it only took a few minutes.

With the frames reinstalled, I place my 2” foam insulation in place.

Then the rear hive door.

An finally, I close the rear of the bee-house.

I start by removing the hive entrance reducer. This is the only way the vaporizer will fit into the entrance.

I load the vaporizer with 1/2 tsp of Oxalic acid and insert it into the hive. I try and center the heating element in about the center of the hive.

Note that vaporizer is not powered at this time and should be cool to the touch.

I cover the entrance hole with some old rags.

Note that the rod portion of the handle gets very hot and will scorch the rags. Make sure the rags don’t have any oil or other highly flammable liquids on them.

Once the timer goes off, I remove the power and set the timer for 10 minutes.

Once the 10 minute timer goes off, I remove the rags…

… and the vaporizer.

After the bees have had a chance to get back into the hive, I reinsert the entrance reducer.

That’s it, the bees are back to normal.

One last thing, make sure when you add your Oxalic acid to the vaporizer that you remove any lumps, or it may not fully sublimate.