How to Kill Varroa Mites - Gas Vap Review and Oxalic Acid Sublimation Explained

Hi, I'm Laurence Edwards from Black Mountain Honey. Welcome to another episode of No Nonsense Beekeeping. Today we're going to be talking about the GasVap Mark 2. So if you saw the first video, you saw that there are a number of issues that I didn't like with the GasVap. I spoke to the manufacturers, I fed back this information, and amazingly they've sent me a brand new Mark 2 version of the Gasfat along with the updated propane burner for me to review and take a look at. And I have to say, they have solved all of my issues with this second iteration model. Um, so purpose of this video is we're going to go back, have a look at the things that I didn't like in the first video, compare them to what I found they've resolved with the new Mark 2 model, and then give my recommendations for the product going forward. So the first version of the gas vat, the reason I didn't like it wasn't necessarily to do with this end. This was a really good design. It was the propane burner was incredibly unreliable, I found. Now, if you've got 1 or 2 hives, as I said in the previous video, the propane burner would have probably worked well. But for bee farmers and people who have got kind of 10, 15, 100, 1,000 hives, when you're going along doing treatment after treatment after treatment, The burners, uh, propane burners failed, and it's generally the ignition that failed. I just think it was too hot and, um, the ignition failed and you just couldn't get it back going again. So I reverted to my Sublimox because I found that a lot more reliable. The other issue I had was that it was getting a little bit hot around here, but like I said, if they resolved the issue with the propane burner, that was a bit of a minor issue and just a small gripe, and it's kind of almost like icing on the cake for me. Something I didn't like, the burner, and then there was a little other issue as well that was a bit niggly. So I've got over that now. Another key feature that they've added actually in the second iteration of the actual gas flap is this here. So they've added a screw thumb turn there, which means that this feels a lot more solid now. It doesn't fall off, whereas before it was a push fit and it could fall off. You've actually got the ability to kind of screw that on now, which means if you've got your own kind of high-quality propane burner, it will fit a number of different models. So the first thing I have to say is thanks so much to the team at GasFab for kind of, A, giving me the opportunity to review the new model, but B, taking on constructive criticism from a number of people. And I know they've had a lot of feedback about the quality of the existing first-generation torch, and, and the first thing they did is they went out and they sourced a much more reliable substitute. So thank you, thank you for taking on the constructive criticism. A lot of manufacturers kind of say, well, that's the product, it's got its flaws, just kind of deal with it. But for some, for a manufacturer to be so reactive to people's criticisms and feedback and to kind of go away, look how they can put that right, and then come out with an iteration that solves all of the problems of the previous generation, kind of hats off to the team down at GasFab for doing that so quickly and getting the new model out. So summarize kind of the issues I didn't like with the first one. Got a little bit hot, but I could get over it. But mainly it was a propane torch, it was unreliable, and I didn't like it. And the team at GasFab have completely resolved that with the new model. So it's a Recro burner now, and it gives you a really, really minute control over the temperature of the flame. And I think that's important because what you didn't want before You didn't want it running at max heat because that caused issues with the reliability. So you tried to kind of put the temperature down to as low as it possibly could on the previous one, and it went out. So in order to kind of get it working, you had to have it at a high temperature, which meant that it probably failed earlier than it should. Now this new model— and I'll just take the gas fat element off— this new model, it has a really kind of fine ability to control the flame. But more importantly than that is that it doesn't go out when you turn the flame right down. So the way that you turn it, that you work this one, is you turn the propane on first like that, and then you turn the torch on. And as you can see, we've got a very steady torch there. It's very windy here today, hence the flame going a bit all over the place. But then what you can do is you can turn that right down. So you can turn that right down now, and that doesn't go out. So I've done a few tests with this. I've had it going. I've had 20 gas vaps in a row off a single burner. The propane tank will last a lot longer than that. It probably lasts about half an hour, and the torch didn't go out once. And I can safely say that never happened on the previous one. I never got past kind of six or seven vapes on the other one. So I've run this one, done loads of tests on it, and it really, really is a very, very good torch. So yeah, so they've completely resolved the problem with the torch, which is really great because. Just turn that off. Not only have they resolved the issue with the torch, but they've obviously added the new functionality on there to put this scrum— uh, this screw thumb turn on. Let's get a close-up on that. You can see now you have the ability to kind of use any other burner you want in there that's going to kind of fit on that diameter. But I have to say, I wouldn't bother. I'd use the burner that they've given you because that is a real, real top quality burner. Um, you can just tell from my kind of initial weekend's use on it that it's going to be very, very reliable. Now I understand there's a further development in the pipeline as well. So the team down at GasFab are resolving another issue as well, and that is the temperature caused around the caps here. So you can see the caps are made of copper, and when you put that into the GasFab like that and you invert it, I mean, obviously you've got to kind of hold that, and I know a number of people use pliers But what they're looking at is potentially kind of covering that with a heat-resistant silicone, which would mean that you can do it just kind of in like— you wouldn't use bare hands because you want to use the kind of correct PPE, but just do it with kind of normal either latex gloves or something that won't melt instead of having to use welder's gloves like this. So that's like a real nice innovation, something to look forward to in the future. So we're going to go and have a look. I'll do a bit of a demo. I've run about 20 or 30 shots kind of through the gas cap already. The torch didn't go out once. It's still firing out kind of nice amount of oxalic sublimate. Obviously, whenever you're using any oxalic acid product— we're using ApiBioxal today, but any kind of generic product— please make sure you use the correct PPE. Full face protection, organic acid vapor filters, gloves, no kind of exposed skin. You want to be as, uh, as safe as you possibly can, mitigate the risk of that kind of coming into contact with your skin, your eyes, and obviously most importantly, your lungs. You don't want to breathe any of that vapour in, so just make sure you're using the correct filters and the correct PPE. It's really not a nice product, so you do need to be safe. So we'll go away and we'll take a look at kind of the, the gas vapour and the new propane torch in action. So as you can see, it's a really, really significant improvement over the existing gas vat. So much so that I'm going to run this on all. All of my treatments this year, I'm going to give it a kind of full go on 150 colonies. And when I do my 150 colonies, you know what I mean, I do it over 15 days with a 5-day gap in between. So I treat, leave it 5 days, treat, leave it 5 days, treat, leave it 5 days. And then that way it makes sure that I get all of the kind of phoretic mites and all of the mites that would have been included within the capped brood on the first 2 treatments. So as I said before, you're never going to get all of the mites, but you want to kind of get as many of them as you possibly can. And 3 treatments over 15 days with 5-day intervals is kind of like the recognized method for doing that. So what I'll be doing is I'll be doing that on my 150 colonies, including the nucs, and I'll be doing that over 3 treatments over 15 days. So I'm going to chuck 450 treatments through that gas vapour and through that torch, and I'll feed back and kind of tell you how many goes you get out on a single torch. And more importantly, the kind of reliability will I get all the way through the 150 hives? Without the torch failing. I'm very, very confident we will. The initial testing is incredibly positive, so much so, like I say, I'm going to use it in all my treatments this year. So I'll feed that back to you and give you kind of a further update, but my initial findings on this kind of weekend of playing around with it is incredibly positive. They've resolved all of the issues that I've fed back as constructive criticism. They've given me the option to— they've given me the opportunity to test that again. Um, and I'm really, really happy with it. So thanks so much to the team at GasVap for kind of giving me the opportunity to test out the new and updated model. And that's about it. So again, very short video, just a bit of an update. And something I just kind of want to say in terms of my reviews and the manufacturers is that I'll always give the products a second chance if I'm ever kind of saying something in particular that I don't like about a product. I'm always happy to kind of go and speak to the manufacturer about that, give that feedback back to them from someone who's kind of, I mean, almost semi-professional, someone who's gonna have the experience of kind of like a few more hives than maybe one or two in the back garden, and let them take that away, go through design development, and come up with a solution that kind of resolves the issues. And that's not to say the issues that I'm finding are nitpicking, I mean, I'll only kind of bring them up if they're real fundamental flaws with the product. Like, for example, the Swenty Brood Box— there's loads of issues with it, and we've gone through that in the Swenty Brood Box review. And I wish Swenty would go away and resolve that product, but I can still kind of manage with it, you know what I mean? And you've seen I paint loads of their boxes all the time, and I buy them because they're cheap. So it's not me nitpicking, it's not me kind of finding flaw with products just for the sake of it, just for the purpose of the reviews. When I pick up these major flaws, that is— it's because they're major flaws. It's not because I'm nitpicking. But like I say, I'm always happy to go back, speak to the manufacturer, and then kind of get that product back in, the revised Mark 2 product, and give it an updated review and see if it can kind of resolve the issues that I found in the previous review. So that's it. So thanks for watching the video again. Please make sure to hit the subscribe button, hit the bell so you get notified of every single video that we put Post onto YouTube. Closer and closer into the season now, the colony's really kind of getting a little bit more active. I suspect that there's a bit of brood in some of them going forward now. We just need to make sure that all these storms kind of get out of the way, we don't lose any more colonies, and then that's it, we're straight into the season. So thanks for watching, and I'll see you next time.