The use and efficacy of formic is a topic that keeps coming back like a bad penny and each time formic is presented as something new due to some new wrinkle in application method. Every time there are new people who have no idea of the long and international history of formic in mite control. Formic was extensively and intensively investigated and employed as a tracheal and varroa control in Europe long before North Americans found a need to fight mites. All sorts of devices and methods have been tried. The methods used in North America to date have been copied or derived almost directly from European methods and devices. A decade or so ago, Betterbee came up with a strip much like the MAQs in concept, if not chemistry. It ultimately failed due to problems with storage and application, if I recall. In case we have forgotten already, the predecessor of MAQs, Mite Away II, was presented as _the_ solution to varroa problems until suddenly it was withdrawn from the market. Some beekeepers used Mite Away II effectively, or thought they did, but many others had variable results and serious losses while using it. We must remember that some beekeepers are using _nothing_ for varroa control and apparently having good survival, due to their local circumstances, stock selection, luck, fraud, or lack of accurate observation and reporting, so we have to look at the reports from formic users with the same skepticism we use when evaluating treatment-free reports. Rob Currie and his crew have done a lot of work with formic and presented the results across Canada over the years. We have watched formic use over the years and have employed it ourselves. One of the things that struck me in the early presentations was the reported loss of production in hives, even if the mites were controlled. This problem seemed elusive and showed up sometimes, but not always, so seems to be weather or operator dependant. That is why I prefer oxalic or Apivar and am cautious about formic. Personally, I consider formic useful for tracheal control, but am doubtful about it for serious varroa control. The long and the short of it is that in spite of the fact that many inventors have promoted formic as a harmless, simple method of control -- if only their proprietary device is employed -- the fact remains that formic is a caustic, touchy, unpredictable control chemical that can do as much harm to the bees and production -- or beekeeper -- as it does to the mites. No amount of promotion or happy talk changes the fact that formic is hard on bees and brood, and maybe the upfront cost is only a hint of the total cost if potential unpredictable damage to colonies and production are considered. I'd like to see a test of MAQs vs. Apivar over a season or two. I'm betting that Apivar is far more benign. *********************************************** The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html