>Why would any manufacture go through the onerous bureaucratic maize 
and enormous expense to register a product that can be cheaply 
replicated by the user?

You had to meet the individual.  He stopped coming to our meetings, 
because in the west, we were told him what he didn't want to hear about 
all 3 products.  Then once he had registration on MAQs, he tried to pull 
Mite Wipes out from under us because his product was licenced. 
Fortunately we received support from the Professional Apiculturists that 
it should be our right to choose and the regulators listened. Mite wipes 
are now "officially" an accepted form of application.

We have never killed a hive with mite wipes, even back in the days when 
we could only get 95% Formic and miscalculated the dilution. Only cut it 
to 80%.  Realized it the next morning after application to about 500 big 
fall hives. I was a wreck on the way to the field.  We were going to 
pull them off.  Found most of the pads were already dry and in some 
cases the bees were starting to haul them out.  There was little to no 
brood in these and we found no ill effects so we left them. Nothing 
showed up long term either. I certainly would not recommend this, but to 
me it showed a margin of safety.

The MIteaways, Miteaway IIs & MAQs were a different story. Lots of 
burned brood, queenless hives and hives that never recovered.

Dave Tharle
T'N'T Apiaries
Ardmore, AB

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