I understand what you are saying Phillip but while we are under the bio security order we have no option. If we detect mites in a hive and once they get to the required threshold, we have to treat all hives in the apiary. We don?t have any choice in the matter. From memory, we have about 5 options here in Australia as far as treatments are concerned. We have a lot of beekeepers who are not registered and have very little idea about what is happening. Quite a few won?t do anything and will try to ride it out. They are the people who will eventually have nothing but in the meantime they will be a problem to anyone else in the neighbourhood. OAV is not registered and is illegal to use in Australia at this point. It may be an option down the track but not in the immediate future. Treating with honey supers on or off is another issue that I?m sure you guys all face as well.
I just looked it up and it seems like FormicPro and ApiGuard are both registered for use in Australia. Both of these are organic, and I know FormicPro is safe with supers, I think ApiGuard is too. I have used both, and personally prefer not to use either with supers on, just because both are very fragrant and I'm worried about the honey taking on the flavor of the treatment, particularly of the ApiGuard, as thymol has a very strong minty flavor. FormicPro is a heavier treatment in my experience, whereas ApiGuard is pretty tame, although I have only used it once or twice. You might want to do some research on those two if you are concerned about residual chemicals from the other treatments.