>It must somehow "open" to allow vaporization, but stay completely
>sealed from manufacturing, through a distributor, through a dealer,
>bouncing around in a beekeeper's truck, and so on.
>
>It has to have a "shelf life", so when "closed" the package must be
>perfectly air tight.  (I'm thinking "plastic-coated sterno can" here.)
>
>It has to be something that will fit in a beehive, a place with not
>much in the way of clearances.  (Now I'm thinking of a very short
>sterno can, the height of an old-style metal pocket-sized aspirin tin).
>
>But wait.... assuming that the package arrives intact in the beekeeper's
>hands, and he/she has placed it in the hive, how the heck do I assure
>a consistent "dose" over a wide range of temperatures?  If it is really
>hot, and the bees are having problems keeping the hive cool, the darned
>stuff will vaporize too quickly, make "too much" vapor, and kill bees.
>
>So, I need some sort of semi-permeable membrane thingy, that acts
>like a "queen excluder" for gasses.  Kinda slow down the vaporization,
>maybe limit the reaction by limiting the escape of the gasses...

The primary delivery method that is being used in Canada now are Formic
Acid soaked foam pads.  The type of foam is identical to the compressed
foam that is used by florists to mount flower arrangements and hold volumes
of water.  Apparently the cells are interconnected and allow for a steady
release of the contained fluid.

The foam pads are about 1/4" thick and vary in size (the ones I use are 4"
x 5") and are sealed in plastic shrink wrap.  When installing in the hive,
the pads are stapled to the inside of the top brood box and the plastic
along the bottom edge is trimmed off to expose the formic acid soaked
foam.  One pad is used for each brood box that is being treated.  At the
end of 21 days the pad is as light as a feather and ready for removal.  The
pads are usually thrown away at this point, or if you are cheap enough...
you can recharge them yourself.  I chuck em' as they are only $4.00 for two
pads (one hive treatment).

The pads were devised by The Ontario Beekeeper's Association's technical
transfer scientist, Dr. Medhat Nasr.  You can read further about the pads
and their use, etc at their website  http://www.miteaway.com/
It is even mentioned that they anticipate the pads being available for sale
in the US in 2002.


>But how can they get away with using this stuff in Canada?
>Those Canadians are tough.  Really tough.  I've heard that many
>of them can even listen to an entire Celine Dion album without
>being driven stark raving mad, so a little acid would be nothing to
them!

Nobody, and I mean nobody is that tough!  Not even in Canada!!

Cheers,
Mark Walker