> I am curious to know if anyone is using the Amrine/Noel formic acid 
> fumigator (FAF)? ...I want to avoid this situation next year and see where 
> the FAF was used for 24 hour treatment in hot weather.  Have these 
> applicators proven effective?  Is anyone using them?

I don't know about the exact design shown at 
http://www.wvu.edu/~agexten/varroa/FormicAcidppt.pdf, but I did encounter 
one beekeeper this year who used formic in a top board.  I gather he got a 
good kill, but still lost hives heavily over winter for whatever reason.

To me the boards (above) look much like the acid boards which are used with 
bee repellants, the difference being that these ones require the hive to be 
sealed.  As a result, the only entrance/ventilation is then through two 
slits in the FAF boards.  The idea is that formic vapour is heavier than air 
and will fill the hive, I guess.

IMO, this method appears to be unnecessarily disruptive, and even 
undesirable.  Without HBH, they killed 25% of the queens.  That has to say 
something.  Is HBH magic?  I doubt it.

Jean Pierre Chapleau developed a bottom board to allow easy monitoring and 
formic flash treatments
http://www.reineschapleau.wd1.net/articles/flash.en.html
without much hive disruption.

Also, "Mite-Wipes" applied once in pairs on top of the brood chamber seem to 
reduce varroa by 2/3rds quite easily and can be repeated as required.

"Bill the Beekeeper" developed Mite-Gone method and prompted it for quite a 
while.  http://www.mitegone.com/  He provides tons of detailed formic info 
on his site.  (He is getting older and has stepped back quite a bit, but I 
did see him in Sacramento).

There are also other minimally disruptive formic methods.

So, I'm skeptical, but If you decide to try this one, we'd all be interested 
in the results.  It has occurred to me to pour some acid onto acid boards 
and slap them on for a few hours to see what falls down.  I would not seal 
the hives, though.  I have the boards and I have the acid.

(Some beekeepers speculate that the reason we did not see mites sooner was 
the widespread practice of pulling honey with carbolic acid.  The mites 
appeared shortly after it was banned).

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