Re. Formic Acid Bill Miller correctly pointed out that the reason formic acid (FA) has not been approved for use in the US (until now) is because of bureaucracy and regulations. I suspect, American beekeepers are experiencing the same problem and frustration as Canadian beekeepers did some years ago. The regulatory structure established for the approval and registration of a product has been designed to deal with a company or individual holding propietary rights to a product it wishes to have approved and registered. Such corporate entity would have to travel through the obligatory route of trials and testing with making the information available to the regulatory agencies. This process generally takes years and millions ($) to complete. But of course, the corporation has at least the assurance of having a monopolistic position in the market place for that product for I believe 20 years. But what about FA? This is a generic product on which nobody has propietary rights. As such, nobody is willing or could afford to carry out efficacy trials, residue testing, etc. without the opportunity to recoup those expenses through future sales. Here in Canada, the beekeeping industry and provincial jurisdictions decided to carry out trials under federal experimental permits for several years. Several people in different provinces coordinated the data collection and label write-up. A video showing the proposed methods of application was made and presented to the key federal officials involved in the approval process. It was only then that FA (65% concentration) became an approved product in beehives for the control of varroa and HBTM in Canada. I hope American beekeepers can establish a similar, industry-supported effort that would see FA become an approved product in the US. FA is not an ideal product both in its efficacy or applicator exposure but it is a valuable tool when used alternatively to Apistan. Paul van Westendorp [log in to unmask] Provincial Apiarist British Columbia