Thanks for the report.  This a particularly interesting matter since many US beekeepers 
do not have many other options and are hoping that the product works and does not 
do too much damage to the colonies.

Last February, Geoff Wilson, Saskatchewan Provincial Apiculturist, reported his experience 
with MAQS at the Alberta IPM Workshop.  He had run a test the previous summer.

See http://www.honeybeeworld.com/diary/files/2011%20IPM%20Agenda.pdf
for the agenda, and
http://www.honeybeeworld.com/diary/2011/diary021011.htm for my report on what I
could recall, and some of his slides.

Geoff's test was entirely independent and his results did not, for whatever reason, 
appear to reflect well on either a.) the product or b.) the supplier, or c.) both, 
depending on how one chooses to interpret the fact that Geoff reports he was 
informed that he had received strips with an incorrect dose, after the trials were 
well underway or complete (I'm not sure which.  Please consult Geoff for the
 exact details if interested.  
See http://www.apiaryinspectors.org/members/provinces.html for his contact info).

Personally, I tend to place more confidence in independent evaluations which are 
not supplied or coached by the supplier, and less in trials sponsored or coached 
by the mfr.  It appears to me that many of the current MAQS testers spend a lot
of time talking  to or receiving help from the supplier, and I suspect this can affect the
usefulness of the results.

IMO, a tester should do what the customer does: buy the product in the retail 
channel, read the instructions and do some research into the product using no 
special connections, use it, then evaluate the results.  The one thing a tester should 
do in every case -- that a consumer might not, but should do --  is to run controls 
and comparisons to products of known efficacy, if available.

Personally, having followed formic for at least a decade and used it a bit, my
concern has always been the question of how much harm it does the bees and 
the crop.  This has been very hard to pin down, since one test may show a drop
in production, and the next show no such effect. 

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