Hive manipulations

I noticed a whiff of something malty out by the hive. Beeks say one of the first signs of a serious smb infestation is the smell of fermentation, so I had a peek. Oh, damn. Bad things escalating. Behind the follower board there is some sort of excelsior, like shredded wood, and there are a million grubs in it, as well as a litter of mites.
I briefly considered putting on a veil for this, but decided to just talk to the bees. I did put on the big blue gloves, which psychologically armor me to reach inside the hive without fear.
What I really need for this job is a vacuum. The motor would have to be kind of far away to avoid making aggressive humming sounds near the hive, so there would have to be a long hose, and the suction would need to be controlled by a button on the handle, to make it nimble enough to avoid sucking up the bees who want to know what you're doing. A little jar you could prime with DE would be stellar.
I ended up using our hive tool, a stiff paint brush, and an index card to sweep, scrape and collect all the scurf, larvae, and adult beetles I could get. There really were a lot. There is a crawl space between the bottom board and the tilted sides that is apparently a perfect brooder for SMBs. I scraped and squished and swept all I could reach without disturbing the giant mega honeycomb in the middle of the hive. I dumped the sweepings into a pile and dosed it savagely with a DE/Pyrethrin combo--after failing to interest the chickens in it. The grubs immediately started humping for the ground but I think I exterminated them all. I also dusted underneath the hive, being careful not to get any in the air to hurt the bees.
Then I took a few deep breaths and started inspecting the brood comb.
The first comb--empty. There is some pollen, and what is probably water? I will have to research. It's shinier than honey. No brood.
In the third comb I found adult beetles and a fair number of larvae. In fact when I poked at what seemed to be capped bee babies, what I found was that excelsior scurf and smb babies. I first moved this comb to the back of the hive, behind the follower board, thinking I'd give the bees on it some time to vacate, but after a little thought I decided to take it out of the hive entirely so the beetles and larvae would not escape back into the box. I moved an empty bar into the brood space. Maybe fresh comb will help get things under control. Once the bees vacate, I'll inspect further and stick the comb in the freezer.
There are larvae and scurf under the brood nest, but not nearly as heaped up as it was behind the follower board. Do the bees carry that stuff out? Or do they just patrol better under the nest, and let things pile up at the back because it's a less immediate threat?
There were a couple bars with empty wax on them, so I took that wax and returned empty bars.
I'm debating whether to remove those bars (3 empty bars spaced for honeycomb), but by all accounts the fall nectar flow is coming and I hope the bees will be filling those bars with goldenrod.
There are a lot of bees, and they seem active enough. There were many mites in the detritus on the bottom board, and I saw three bees with mites, out of 10 combs inspected.
I didn't see any brood. None at all. Is this a seasonal thing? Is this hive failing? Did the new queen die? Are there just too many pests in this hive?
I checked out the Honey B Healthy at Dadant's, and it's a sugar syrup with lemongrass and spearmint oil, emulsified with lecithin, and preserved with some kind of sulfate. I can definitely make that myself. The questions are:
How much support/interference/treatment is appropriate to keep a hive going if it's weak?
How much of the trouble these girls are having is due to the structure, with its closed base and beetle hidey holes?

I'll do some further reading today, but for now, I think:
a. weekly or bi-weekly cleaning. This mimics the bees' own immune behavior--the physical removal of pests--and should reduce the beetle population.
b. weekly DE applications under the hive.
c. research hive placement for its relationship to pest populations.
d. Consider feeding lemongrass/spearmint syrup periodically to make the brood more mite resistant.

I'm really tired today, and not too inclined to work outside, even though there a number of tasks pressing. It was an exhausting week at work. Here's what needs doing on the Sanctuary:
1. Storm blew down my fern and orchid cable, breaking all the orchid pots. I need to bleach the new pots, and purchase some orchid potting mixture. And string a new cable, dammit.
2. Continue clearing brush and weeds so the yard is presentable and hospitable for our upcoming full moon events.
3. Clean the clerestory windows.
4. Prep the sparkleberry sprouts for digging up later this winter, so they can be transplanted.
5. Clear under the tomato trellis and stir up soil for planting sugar snaps.
6. Give Starboard and brood a dish of dry sand to bathe in (finding dry sand is the issue...)
7. Wash and doctor Camille.
8. Figure out where to plant the red anise trees and the silverbells sapling.
9. Bring home enough blocks to make another bed for planting out back--for greens and lettuces this winter.
10. Clean the goldfish.

But first, breakfast. Broccoli, mushroom, and onion omelet with amarillos. Not very local, today, I'm afraid, but at least the cheese and eggs are.