@JD'sBees:I have just finished using Mite-Away Quick Strips (MAQS) in three of my four my hives, with the supers on as we are having an almost uninterrupted spring>summer>fall flow this year.
I did sugar rolls (in addtion to almost constant sticky boarding) to confirm the need for treatment.
It is easy to do, relatively inexpensive as treatments go, and takes only a week. There is some possible risk of short-term interruption of egg laying, or larval/brood damage particularly at the higher end of the approved temperature range. I held off a few days to wait for a window of temps in the high 70s-very low 80s, for safety's sake. My girls weren't too offended by the intensive smell during the first few days and seem to have tolerated the treatment well. You do need heavy-duty chemical resistant gloves to install the strips. I didn't use a respirator, or any additional eyewear beyond my normal prescription lenses (and of course I had a veil on.) The product is fully disbursed in the first three days, although the strips must stay there for the full week.
I was somewhat underwhelemed by the modest number of dead mites that appeared during treatment on my sticky board. In my normal size hive (one deep brood and a couple of med supers) where I would have expected two or three hundred dead mites, I found only several dozen. In my mammoth hives were I would have expected a several hundred, I got a couple of hundred. A customer service rep I spoke with suggested this was normal and that I would continue to see mites fall over the course of the next week or so as the treated mite-corpses are turfed out of cells when the bee-larvae emerge. I plan to re-sugar roll in about 10-14 days and will confirm health of queen and brood then. I have removed the carrier strips promptly after the treatment period because my ladies don't like junk in their houses and were already chewing on them.
FWIW, although my girls are normally pretty calm they seemed exceptionally mild-mannered today when I was removing the treatment debris from deep within the hive. Perhaps they had more of a challenge from pests than I appreciated before treatment, although I treated as soon as they reached the watch/treat threshold for my area and season. I wanted to make sure they started making wintering-over brood under the best conditions possible.
@Challenger: I am interested in the formic flash method, do you have some links?. Some of my hives are extremely large right now (36-40 deep frames of bees) so that would be a lot of formic acid to apply (72-80 mL) at once. Have I done the math correctly?
Is there a low-temp limit on this? My days are still flirting with 75-85, but many nights are in the 50's. As you can imagine from these frames-of-bees numbers my hives are very tall and populous right now. Is that a concern? Also I have one hive that is a profoundly top-entrance hive (though it has open acess below) does that make a difference? I have seen the formic flash method discussed on the Bee-L list. The short period of the treatment appeals to me as some summers we don't have an obliging high 70s' week without a dearth when I would have my entrances reduced to prevent robbing, which of course can't happen during the week of MAQS treatment. Some summers a week would be hard to get scheduled, but the flash method would always the right sized window.
Enj.
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