At 12:00 AM 12/17/99 -0500, you wrote: >Their reasoning was that because the original packaging was not sealed in an >airtight package the fluvinate dried up and lost effectiveness. The >strips were one year old at >the time of placement in the hive and had been stored in their original >package, out of sunlight. I don't think that this is borne out by the experience of the majority. I think you may have fluvalinate resistant mites. I suggest you try an alternative treatment. DON'T overlap chemicals, however. Studies have shown that fluvalinate is present in the combs for weeks after using the strips. I would remove all the brood and freeze it. Then you can give the combs back and the bees will clean them out. Use a different chemical in January or February. Try having your hives build some drone comb. By giving a frame with most of the comb cut out, you can get nice drone combs built in the spring. Remove these when the drone brood is capped and freeze it. If your hives are close together, you will want to treat them all the same because if there are resistant mites around, they will piggyback on drifting bees and soon all your hives will have them. PB