All of the discussion about cleaning excluders begs the real questions:

Do excluders actually work as well as the proponents think -- in our
research, we've seen a lot of queens slip through, whether metal or plastic.

Are excluders good management  -- do they actually do more good than harm?

How much is the use of excluders based on actual data -- or are they being
used because that's the way things should be?

Frankly, I've seen excluders cause tremendous disruption to colony dynamics
- queens superceded, balled, aborted.  Brood ripped out, etc.  Comb torn
down.  Resources moved about -- all during nectar flows.

This may seem to be what you want -- shut down the queen's laying, fewer
mouths to feed after the nectar flow.  But it may also affect the dynamics
of nectar gathering, overall foraging activity, and your honey
yields.  Might more honey harvested offset some of the additional mouths to
feed?

Maybe you'd be better off to go in after the flow, find the queen, remove
half of the old bees - sell them for dog food or make splits?  That would
accomplish what you want -- reduce population size, and stimulate the queen
to produce more young bees -- who might just winter better?

I realize that there are different dynamics in different climates --
excluder users generally

a) want to shut down the queen, keep population size smaller post-nectar
flow, and/or
b) don't want brood in the honey boxes (reason many commercial folks use them).

My problem, how much of this is beekeeper lore or convenience, how much
based on real knowledge?

Me thinks this may set off a debate - hopefully more interesting than 100
other ways to clean excluders.  Don't get me wrong, the first few posts
were interesting -- but I think that thread has run its course.

Jerry

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