Tried freezing, no go. Tried boiling.
Excluders are a relatively precise instrument. Any slight deviation can cause failure. Plastic is not the best material for the task. It degrades over time and can be distorted with mechanical abuse. Heat can soften it enough that when cooled, it may set differently.
A heat gun certainly generates temperatures that can easily destroy the functionality of a plastic QE. If you are careful you might get away with it.
Freezing or emerging in hot water is the goto for wax removal, wax melt way below boiling temperature. Freezing makes wax brittle, so flexing or slapping the excluder against the bench top typically shatters the wax loose. If these techniques didn’t work for you, I suspect you might be dealing with propolis or at least a mix of propolis and wax, which would require mechanical removal also risking damaging the plastic.
Most Flow beekeepers I know discard their plastic excluder in the second year and move to stainless steel. Much more robust and with care will last many years. I’m still using my first ones at 11years. The cheaper galvanised steel version tend to rust if you use formic acid or oxalic acid for varroa control.
Mike
3 Likes