BJ Sheriff have recently been contacted by the Home Office Chemical Reporting Team, who deliver parts of the Government’s Counter Terrorism Strategy, to request assistance in getting important information about Oxalic Acid (OA) out to the bee keeping industry. Oxalic Acid is a regulated poison under the 1972 Poisons Act. Generic OA, liquid and powder solutions including oxalic acid dihydrate and oxalic acid crystals, come under these restrictions when they are above the 10% concentration threshold.

All authorised Varroa treatments containing OA are exempt from restrictions and can continue to be bought by hobby beekeepers from the usual suppliers.

UK licenced products:

·         API-Bioxal

·         Dany’s BienenWohl Powder and Solution

·         Oxuvar

·         Oxybee

Substances not on the database that are prescribed by a vet through the cascade system (www.gov.uk/guidance/the-cascade-prescribing-unauthorised-medicines) are also exempt from the regulations.

Outside of the specified products, members of the public who want to import, acquire, possess, or use the regulated chemicals must hold an Explosives Precursors and Poisons (EPP) licence issued by the Home Office. From 1 October 2023 businesses supplying regulated explosives precursors or poisons to professional users and other businesses (those who don’t need a licence) need to be compliant and take additional steps to verify the legitimacy of the professional user or business. 

To sell oxalic acid above 10% w/w concentration to a member of the public, in addition to them having an EPP license you must be lawfully conducting a retail pharmacy business, the supply must be made on a premises registered as a pharmacy and the sale must be under the supervision of a pharmacist.

Full details regarding the legislation can be found here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/supplying-explosives-precursors/supplying-explosives-precursors-and-poison#fulllist

A full list of products on the Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD) Product Information Database can be found here:

www.vmd.defra.gov.uk/ProductInformationDatabase/current/search-results

For disposal of generic OA, licenced OA or other VMD licenced products the Home Office recommends contacting your local council for guidance.

https://www.gov.uk/hazardous-waste-disposal

If you have any questions about oxalic acid and the regulations surrounding its sale, please contact us at:

ChemicalReportingTeam@homeoffice.gov.uk    

BJ Sherriff support Exeter University in their many important research projects – the latest being an important study of the Asian Hornet which we have heard has been discovered in the local village of Fowey, Cornwall not that far from BJ Sherriff’s base camp September 4, 2018

Here is the link to the research paper in Nature’s Communications Biology:  http://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-018-0092-9 (BJ Sherriff’s kind support fully acknowledged).  And also a link to the University’s press release linked to this work:  http://www.exeter.ac.uk/news/research/title_668720_en.html.  The press office have also produced a brief YouTube video:

“Thank you again for supporting last year’s research effort by donating a beekeeping
suit for Scott Ford, the postgraduate student who assisted with this work
during September’s fieldwork and allowing us to use your Brittany Ferries membership discount. ” Dr Peter Kennedy, Research Fellow, University of Exeter.