Blimey Nigel makes me feel that my autumn process was at least partly successful then , I was only seeing mites drops in the high ten at each visit an put it down to low infestation
I haven't checked for mite drop for a while. However mite boards went in a week or so ago with most colonies and the rest today so I can check after Christmas - usually the time for oxalic acid treatment for me. I don't recall that I have ever had 1000 mites drop - hundreds, yes.
This afternoon I put fondant on a couple of (a bit larger than) mini-nucs which were very light. I am not really expecting them to get through winter - but you never know.