Dave,

sorry I only saw your post today! and by chance...I do not read all the
posts of bee-l since there are so many...

Status: I have bene refining the product and doing field tests in
beekeeper's colonies... Unfortunately in Michigan here we donot have a lot
of mites until August/Sept when drone rearing can be difficult.  I think we
might try one more year next year and perhaps inoculate some mites to all
colonies and then zap some and leave others as control from May to July,
then check total mite levels in August/Sept.

right now the zapper has a temperature sensor on the comb to shut down the
power when it gets about 58C. the heating is done by a printed circuit board
which is very neat but too expensive ($50 each).  Right now someone is
interested after reading the American Bee Journal article.  Hopefully we can
got it to the market in a year! I know this thing will work much better than
screen bottom board. it will work just as well as the drone trapping method
using a freezer except it is easier and simpler (no moving of the frames, no
freezer required).  Actually brood does not really become charred even at 60
C. they sort of cook but most heat then is trasferred in melting the wax, by
the time it is too hot (say 80 C, which is unlikely), the brood will be
already gone with no wax support. with the current design if you shut down
the power after 5-7 min, it should not get that hot.

Best,

Zachary

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