>> Although I agree with you Pete, that it is intuitively obvious that something corrosive enough to damage mites *should* also do *some sort* of damage to bees, I think it is fair to ask return, where is the evidence that this formulation harms the bees?

>Look, I have worked with formic for more than ten years, and I have seen it kill queens & bees, so for someone to say it doesn't, they need to prove it.

We all know that some popular formic methods do obvious harm if they are not applied properly and/or if the weather goes wrong.  What we are looking for is formic treatments that are more predictable and with less potential collateral damage, as well as being resonably safe for the operator.  

Formic is cheap, and deals with at least two parasites.

Bill has suggested that his method done the way he does it shows no appreciable harm to the bees and brood.  We wonder if there have been independent confirmations of his observations.  Some demand more proof than others.

He also points out that the Mitegone pads are dry enough to handled with bare hands when being placed into the hives!

I ask, has anyone on this list tried Mitegone?  If not, that is most interesting, since Bill has spent a lot of time travelling around talking about it.  If anyone has, I'd like to hear what they know. 

Moreover, it seems that Bill is not the only one who states that formic can be used without detectable harm to bees and brood.

We discussed this study recently: 

vanEngelsdorp D. R. Underwood, and D. Cox Foster 2008 Flash fumigation of honey bee Apis mellifera (Hymenoptera: Apidae) colonies with formic and acetic acids for the control of Varroa destructor (Acari: Varroidae). Journal of Economic Entomology101(2) 256-264 

http://ento.psu.edu/directory/duv2/vanEngelsdorp_et_al_flash_formic_2008.pdf

To quote from the abstract, "...In this study, a 17-h application of 50% formic acid effectively killed mites in capped worker brood and on adult bees without harming queens or uncapped brood..."

I wonder if they met the protocol?   

Will everyone accept their conclusions?

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