The first strip was released in 1992 and went by the brand name Miticur. The strip, when introduced into the hive, carried with it a dose of the chemical amitraz, which was designed to be toxic enough to kill the mites, but not so potent as to kill the bees on which the mites reside. This approach to pest control is similar to using chemotherapy drugs in the treatment of cancer. Chemotherapy drugs are toxic to healthy cells as well as cancer cells. However,the chemotherapy treatment protocol calls for a dosage that is toxic enough to kill the cancer before the drugs have the effect of killing the person hosting the disease. Unfortunately, many beekeepers continued to experience huge hive losses despite treating with Miticur, and it was removed from the US market after a short duration, although it recently has been re-released under the trade name Apivar. At the time of its discontinuation, some people believed there had been a problem with the strips containing the wrong dosage of pesticide, which failed to kill the mites outright and allowed the mite to develop resistance to the chemical. However,our lack of knowledge and experience with this new mite may have also played a role in Miticur's apparent failure. Unless the unlikely event of production problems during pesticide manufacturing occurred, the beekeepers who initially experienced major losses to the mite despite their use of Miticur were probably treating their hives too late in the season without realizing it. Remember, this was in the early 1990s, and beekeepers had not yet gained much experience dealing with the varroa threat.