What do you other beekeepers use? Until last year I had never used any mite treatment in my hives. I got tired of losing so many hives each winter that I decided to try treating last year. I used Oxalic Acid Vaporization. OAV does a fantastic job of killing mites that are on the bees but will not penetrate the cappings and kill mites in the cells with the brood. It takes 3 treatments, 5-7 days apart to get a good kill with OAV, while brood is present. The only other effective "organic" treatment for mites is Mite Away Quick Strips, or MAQS. It can be used while honey supers are on and does kill mites under the caps. The only problem is that it can kill the bees too, if the temps get above 90 degrees during the treatment.

I decided to try Apivar strips. They are not organic but after dealing with American Foulbrood this spring, I've abandoned the whole "treatment free" approach to beekeeping.

So anyway, I put Apivar strips into 12 nucs today. I will likely consider this the fall treament and not treat again until I treat in mid winter with OAV when they are broodless.

I used MAQS on one hive last fall. That was the hive that I did about everything you could do wrong in a 10 day stretch. I had a few days in there that got over 90. Can't say if it did any good because I added a new queen and feeder in the same stretch and wrecked the hive...But, it was easy to use the MAQS.

But, I was going to do the OAV treatments this fall. I was going to build one of the units that use a glow plug and battery. I was thinking about a September treatment. I have not done a mite check but was planning on doing a sugar check on my 3 best hives sometime in the next few weeks. If the counts are up I may have to do the same thing you are doing.

Did you do a mite count or just assuming you need to treat?

I did a mite count on a few hives a couple months ago. They were a little high then, so I know they are high now. If you're gonna OAV this fall, I'd back up and start about mid August. They'll be making winter bees by then.

EDIT: and try an alcohol wash, IMO it's much easier and faster than a sugar roll.

My hive beetles are coming on now too. I have two screened bottom with tray and I added oil the other day. Gonna try the Swiffer pads on a few of the others and see how they work. Beetles are not at alarming level in any one hive yet but they have really come on the last month or so. Gonna pour some pymethrin once I get the grass knocked down.

A guy at the bee club meeting last Thursday said he had good luck with nematodes on the SHB's this year.

I don't know for certain the reason, but I don't have any hive beetle problems. I see maybe 10-15 in an entire year. I think it's because I run restricted entrances all year long and the bees can defend the entrance easily. Plus my hives are in full sun and that's supposed to help.

I use #8 hardware cloth as a entrance reducer so the hive still has plenty of ventilation.

I also wonder if screened bottom boards don't allow the beetles to gain access to the hive from the bottom. I run solid bottom boards.

I know several folks that have been using the MAQs. Not only do they claim that they are a solid performer agains the mites but also manage to knock down the Small Hive Beetle population as well. I'm using the swifter pads for SHB and the oil traps between the frames and that keeps them knocked down pretty well.
I'm about to take off for a few months so I'm going to order some for a late summer / early fall treatment since they seem to be fairly simple to use.

Let me know how the MAQS does for you. The main thing that's kept me from using it, is the random reports of queen death/failure after using it.