Re-arrange the inside of the hive and
then two-and-a-half hours per treatment ! - they've got to be kidding.
And - to add insult to injury - a second treatment is required as the first is only 80% effective. That's the most impractical idea I've heard in a very long while. Also - how many hives before the battery needs re-charging ?
Neill, if you do forum search for "Mite Zapper", you'll see that elevated heat treatment has been discussed here several times over the years. Here's a quote from the Mite Zapper User Manual:
Note Regarding Mite Mortality:
The MiteZapper? works by progressively killing the varroa trapped inside the sealed drone cells, each time you zap your colony. After the 1st zapping you will kill a significant number of varroa mites. The remaining varroa still alive in the colony will be trapped and killed by the 2nd zapping, and so on. By the 3rd or 4th zapping, the number of varroa in the colony will be under control and will be tolerated by the bees.
So - after 4 applications, the number of mites will be "under control" ... whatever that means. So - that's four generations of drones, reared at a substantial energy investment - and allowed to become knackered by Varroa, just in order to kill those mites.
Contrast 'The Victor' and 'Mite Zapper' approach with a single dose of Oxalic Acid dust generated by Vapourisation, and applied during a broodless period in winter. Whilst not suggesting that this is ever 100% effective, it appears to be the most efficient and cost-effective solution to the Varroa problem at the present time.
The idea of killing of mites by an elevated temperature was first trialled back in 2001. Sixteen years later, this technique still hasn't been embraced by the wider beekeeping community. I suspect there's a sound reason for this.
It certainly doesn't appeal to myself, but - if you should decide to try one of these devices - do let us know how you get on with it.
LJ