I've been wondering about the cidal nature of formic and oxalic acid treatments and one thought I had was the mite body surface to volume is much much higher than bees or even larvae that are a few days old, that the acid levels can get to equalibrium concentrations much more quickly in the mite due to their high surface area to volume ratio and that gives the differential killing ability of these acids.  This is just a guess, however if true then eggs and very young larvae would be succeptable via this mechanism too, many people suggest the queen doesn't lay for a few days after MAQS treatments irrc, but perhaps what is happening is that the eggs and small larvae are getting killed during the treatment.  Maybe?  Mark

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