> >MAQS have been known to kill queens. I put my guess as to the guilty party
> >on the MAQS. They were applied according to label with the correct
> >temperature and location of the MAQS. When we broke down the dead hives
> the
> >MAQS were intact, they had not been removed from the hives, in fact looked
> >untouched.
>

The only time I have noticed significant queen loss (~10%) with MAQS was
when I was sold expired and/or temperature abused product - in this case
the strips were more of cream colour and much wetter with a really strong
formic smell.  It was hard not to damage the paper when separating.  Now
when I order, my first question is what is the expiry date of the MAQS the
supplier is stocking.  I prefer to treat with two single strips 14 days
apart, but if levels are high I will put on 2 strips at once.  A couple of
observations:

1) The effectiveness seems to vary quite a bit depending on temperature and
the amount of brood - you always have to perform follow up mite checks
2) It is common here for colonies to be mid-supercedure in early August.
Putting on MAQS when the colony is anywhere in the process of producing a
new queen seems to result in a queen-less colony (I believe that more often
that not, this is the queen loss commonly reported).

The majority of the time I find that other than burning off most of the
open brood it has little negative effect on the colony.  At this point we
don't have any other approved options for treatment with supers on.

Adam
Barrie, ON

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