<snip> As a general rule I would say to never use MAQS passed the date.  However you can tell when it starts to breakdown.  The colour starts to change to change from white to a more off-white colour, there is more liquid in the packages, it gives off a lot more formic fumes and the paper starts to

disintegrate.   When it gets to this state, it goes from being a gradual

treatment(the paper plays a part in this) to basically a 24 hour intense flash treatment.  >



Interesting.... I had a couple old pads earlier in the summer (about a year out of date) where the paper was brown, soggy and very hard to separate from the second pad...obviously very saturated... that I put on a hive with a solid bottom board and some DWV showing up as an experiment.  Seemed to work fine with the regular dose and very little adult mortality.



A week ago I used a couple much fresher pads (still a little out of date but looked like new) on a big Carnica hive with a heavy mite load.  The hive has a screened BB with a rather drafty insert.  Fully open entrance and a hole in the top super.  Applied exactly according to label directions.  No bearding at all, but next day there were about 800 dead bees out front.  The next day, an additional several  hundred.  Workers are still hauling out numbers of corpses.  I'll be checking for queen loss in a week or so.  Temps were in the '60 deg. F. range.



I'm puzzled, as I have used the product before on Italians with good results.  If I ever use it again, I will go with the half-dose or if I give a full dose, be sure to have the SBB insert out AND move the top super back an inch.



==============================

Dave Pehling

 



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