resistance to small hive beetle?

[heaflaw]

Small hive beetles just entered this area last year.  My hives (Italians with some Geman mix) seem to have overcome varroa: I haven't treated in 3 years 7 when I test with sugar shake I find very few.  Are certain strains resistant to the beetles?  Do I do the live & let die method like I did to find bees resistant to varroa?  Can I purchase queens or nucs that can deal with the beetles?  What have you guys futher south done?

[bassman1977]

On occasion I have seen small hive beetles in my hives.  Only a couple here or there.

You want bees with good hygienic behavior.  Small hive beetles don't attack the bee itself such as the varroa.  More so they destroy the comb when they feed on the pollen and honey and infest the comb with their larvae.  If it gets out of control, this destruction will weaken a colony.  The beetles are hard so bees have difficulty stinging them.  You can help control them also with traps.

Here's some good info:

http://www.bugwood.org/factsheets/small_hive_beetle.html

[tlynn]

The bees corral SHB in a corner of the hive, usually top super.  That's why when you pull the top you will see beetles scatter from a corner if you have a lot of beetles.  I read somewhere that frequent hive checks can actually be a detriment as you end up releasing the beetles.  I always have my hive tool in hand when I pull a top and am ready to crunch beetles.

[SlickMick]

Strong colonies seem able to co-exist with the SHB. Having bees covering all the frames seems to be essential in preventing shb access into areas where it is able to lay eggs.

Bees that react aggressively towards the shb are prefered to those that accept the shb in their midst. If you lift a frame with shb on it you will hopefully see bees attempting to sting the shb or coralling them into a corner somewhere. A good way to see what sort of numbers you have in your hive is to place the lid upside down on the ground and put a box of brood on it. When you lift is a few minutes later you should see the shb running aroung the lid in the corners.

That article that Bassman recommended is pretty straight forward. The main thing is that you cannot afford to be complacent with the shb as given the opportunity it will multiply exponentially and in a week or so you will have a hive of maggots and sour honey, no brood and most likely absconding bees. Cleaning up the mess is challenging to say the least.

Put some traps into your hives so that you are able to assist your colonies by reducing their numbers

Remember the shb flies in to your hives so it may pay to have only the amount of entry that your bees require. At the moment my hives are operating with about 4" of entry but we are in the fall on this side or the world. I expect that I will need to open the entries up fully in the summer but will put fly wire over most of the entry to reduce access to the shb

Unfortunately our bees are not resistant to the shb. Their only defence seems to be their aggressiveness towards it and our ability to manage the problem

Mick

[bassman1977]

I think Fat Bee Man had a video on how to make SHB traps using election signs, crisco, and something else.  I don't remember what the something else is though.  If I get a chance to search for it, I will post the link.

[Scadsobees]

Supposedly the african honeybees are resistant to SHB.  But I think the downsides outweigh the benefits  :roll:

I agree, keep strong hives, and make sure that they don't have more comb than what they can defend if they aren't such a strong hive.

And you can make use of some of the beetle traps that are available...they are non-toxic and all that.

Rick

[WOB419]

Bassman, the "something else" is boric acid.  It's an interesting chemical actually.  I haven't used it, I would rather trap them and bait the traps with apple cider vinegar which has worked well for me so far.  But if I find that I have to go to a chemical this seems like a reasonable one to use.  It is the ingredient in Borax soap.

[sc-bee]

Link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_KDPp8H6PU

[SlickMick]

I don't think that any honey bee is resistant to the small hive beetle. It seems to me that some strains are better able to cope with the existence of the shb within their hive. From my understanding the African Honey Bee is able to defend its territory much better than the European honey bee (EHB) by virtue of its extreme defensive nature and there seems to be evidence that some hives within the EHB family are able to better defend against the shb than others. It would appear that defending the colony against the shb is dependant on the hive's reluctance to have the shb in its midst and I have often seen individuals and groups within my hives attacking the shb quite aggressively. I understand that some colonies do not share this characteristic and I would expect that their load of shb is significantly higher as a result.

It appears as though some beekeepers are heading down the path of breeding from queens whose colonies respond proactively towards the shb and this can do the industry no harm as the problem would become less of a collective financial issue.

To my way of thinking it is important to know what is going on within your hives and to develop colonies that respond aggressively towards the shb. Whilst your bees may not be resistant to the shb (as they fly in and can infiltrate any hive within their territory) the way they respond to the existence of the shb within the hive may be the difference between survival or ultimately death

Mick

Mick

[tlynn]

Also I have used beneficial nematodes in the soil around the hives.  The results are probably anecdotal, but I had them pretty bad early summer last year and put AJs traps in and sprayed the ground with a solution of water and live nematodes.  I caught 30-40 beetles in each trap per week for a few weeks and then hardly saw a beetle the rest of the year.  This year beetles are still low.  So I don't know how much of that population decline was due to nematodes.  At least from what I have read if you keep the nematode levels up the larvae in the ground don't have much of a chance, as the nematodes bore right into them and kill them.  I am going to get another batch soon and apply now that we are getting some rain.  I think the soil has to stay moist for them to survive well.

[WOB419]

Are beneficial nematodes something that you get at a garden center?  Are they expensive?

Has anyone tried lining the ground beneath and around the hives with plastic to act as a barrier to the SHB boring into the ground?  It would also control grass from growing up right in front of the hive entrance.