On page 18 of an article by Dr. Malcom Sanford in the June 2003 Bee Culture magazine exploring world wide use of Formic acid he makes a comment on coumaphos use which I wonder myself about. So far my fears have fell on deaf ears. Perhaps others are seeing the same thing with queens in their bees. Dr. Sanford's statement from article: "Far more problematic is the organophosphate called coumaphos. many believe the premature failure (supercedure) of many commercial queens in the U.S. can be blamed on contamination of the nest with this material." I personally believe the above has merit or at least that coumaphos queen contamination is happening . Although researchers are not finding coumaphos levels high enough for researchers to say for sure nest contamination is a problem early queen supercedure is on the rise in hives of commercial beekeepers using checkmite. Bob Harrison hypothesis: I believe the queen spends her whole life on the brood comb and in contact with bees with coumaphos while treatment is going on (Let alone actually crawling over the checkmite strip). Many treat twice a year with more than one checkmite strip so a queen in her second year could have been exposed for four treatments at the end of her second year and a queen at the end of her third year up to six treatment periods of coumaphos. Because several of my close researcher friends have said that from their testing coumaphos contamination in brood comb is in their opinion not high enough in the general commercial hive population to be causing the supercedure problem I have decided they are probabbly right and the problem is a contamination problem with the queen herself. I also believe that queens in their second and third season are at the most risk. Queen loss among commercial beekeepers this year in California was at record numbers and many were at a loss to understand why. Comments? Sincerely, Bob Harrison Odessa, Missouri :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: -- Visit www.honeybeeworld.com/BEE-L for rules, FAQ and other info --- ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::