I'm sure the method will continue to be debated. I plan on going to the hive today to check the bottom board. But, I did not have a serious mite infestation. I never measured the mite count before the fogging either and probably won't be a great test case.
I did however pull brood frames (eight of them totally) from three hives two weeks ago to replace with honey frames for winter. When I did so, the witnessed many new bees hatching and found one mite only on one of the new hatchlings:
So, if you find one, can you assume a certain number? I don't think you can for sure, but with the eight frames being removed from over my three hives, even if they had more mites, they are now dead. Then we found one mite on a drone, pictured above, in my brother-in-laws hive (out of two hives) upon inspection. We fogged five hives in total yesterday.
Sorry that I can' be more helpful, but there's always next time :)
The affordability part for me was that I bought a service, not the unit. A few dollars or so to fog my hives is worth the experimentation with my first-year packaged hives, that have no serious mite infestation upon inspection. Also the service wasn't advertised to me; with the information I had heard about acetic acid, I decided to give it a try and asked the owner of the machine if he provides a service fee for fogging.
Unfortunately this was more of a "look how it's done" post, rather than "look at my results" post, so most beeks will be disappointed I gather.
Have a fantastic weekend!
Scott