Hi All, A member asked me off list for the results of my treatment of 1000 hives with two MAQS this summer in mid to late August, temps in the 90's, low humidity. First, re adverse effects on queens, we noticed about one colony queenless per yard of 24-30 hives, most often in hives that we had already marked as having some sort of "issue." My interpretation is that the full MAQS treatment knocks out iffy queens (the same interpretation as that of David Vanderdussen). A number of those colonies successfully requeened themselves. As far as efficacy, I did not sample completely nor methodically, so these data are only informational, not conclusive by any means. Nor did I make any effort to sample the same hives over time. Random (arbitrary) mite counts (alcohol wash of ~320 bees) from various yards approx 6 weeks after treatment were 0,3,3,22,0,4,29,0,1,0,3,0,28 Some other local beekeepers noticed the same trend--good knockdown in the majority of hives, but lack of efficacy in some. Because of the scattered unacceptably high counts, we followed with a 25g dose of Apiguard in the broodnest after the above sampling. Results in October (a week or two after thymol treatment) were: 3,1,1,1,1,1,3,2,0,2,0,1 I feel that the lack of efficacy with the double MAQS in some of the hives was due to their being 3-4 deeps high (hadn't pulled honey), and us possibly not placing the strips immediately above the brood. In previous trials, I got more consistent efficacy when all colonies were doubles only. Overall, we found that a one-two punch of MAQS (formic) followed by Apiguard (thymol) got mites to acceptable levels. We will follow up this month with a final oxalic dribble. -- Randy Oliver Grass Valley, CA www.ScientificBeekeeping.com *********************************************** The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html