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Author Topic: What are y'all doing for the #!@#$& hive Beetles?  (Read 6682 times)

Van, Arkansas, USA

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Re: What are y'all doing for the #!@#$& hive Beetles?
« Reply #20 on: August 09, 2017, 11:31:13 pm »
Hey Fish Nut:  my 2 cents worth.  I use oil pans, Frerman bottom board.  I have a SECTETE weapon that is deadly on beetles: super cold 134 spray can available at Amazon.  When the beetles try to hide in the cracks or in the bottom of cells, I freeze with the spray that is minus 62F at the tip.  The can of freeze spray has a tube just like with wd40.  This tube EASILY fits right into a cell, traps the Beetle exit and freezes the Beetle to death (-62F).  A honey bee 1/2 inch away is unharmed.  Bees 1/4 away will scamper.  The gas is nonflammable nontoxic and the same stuff used in doctor offices to freeze warts.  Super cold 134 takes no survivors.  Not for commercial use due to cost, again I cannot post price per adm. Rules.  But is doable.

CAUTION AROUND CHILDREN, it will freeze skin as mentioned.  This product is also used for removing dust from computers chips.
Blessings

Offline Oldbeavo

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Re: What are y'all doing for the #!@#$& hive Beetles?
« Reply #21 on: August 10, 2017, 04:10:51 am »
Are there any nooks and cranny's where the beetle can get away from the bees? Our hives are very plain and any crevices or wood knots are filled in construction.
No telescopic lids or vent boards to provide hiding places for SHB's

Offline eltalia

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Re: What are y'all doing for the #!@#$& hive Beetles?
« Reply #22 on: August 10, 2017, 05:27:53 am »
Hey Fish Nut:  my 2 cents worth.  I use oil pans, Frerman bottom board.  I have a SECTETE weapon that is deadly on beetles: super cold 134 spray can available at Amazon. 

Now that is a top move... only downside being using 134A as the product. An inert gas may rest easier with the chemical free pedant.
http://www.wartoff.com.au/

Having some on the shelf, I 'll try it with GoPro mounted next time I find a beetle/grub... could be more fun than popping toads on the road!


Cheers.

Bill

Offline GSF

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Re: What are y'all doing for the #!@#$& hive Beetles?
« Reply #23 on: August 10, 2017, 08:27:31 am »
Hmmm, that 134 spray sounds like a lot of fun...
When the law no longer protects you from the corrupt, but protects the corrupt from you - then you know your nation is doomed.

Offline agrimm01

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Re: What are y'all doing for the #!@#$& hive Beetles?
« Reply #24 on: August 10, 2017, 10:38:18 am »
I applied the NeverWet method of hive beetle control this year and it has worked great.  Every time I have opened my hives (3) this summer there have been zero to 1 beetle.  It has been a success for me.

Offline paus

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Re: What are y'all doing for the #!@#$& hive Beetles?
« Reply #25 on: August 10, 2017, 11:21:31 am »
I ordered some never wet and have not used it yet, but I am in the process of building some DSBB now.  I am going to do the never wet thing  also along with oil pans. This should add icing to the SHB cake battle.  Just a thought. Since SHB move into hives that are stressed , does opening the hive cause enough stress to cause SHB to move in?  Maybe this should be a new subject.

Offline GSF

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Re: What are y'all doing for the #!@#$& hive Beetles?
« Reply #26 on: August 10, 2017, 01:19:58 pm »
When we go in a hive we "free" the beetles about as much as we "stress" the bees. I've always heard they can tell when a hive is stressed. I've also caught swarms with a bucket just to discover that the swarm had small hive beetles with it.
When the law no longer protects you from the corrupt, but protects the corrupt from you - then you know your nation is doomed.

Offline Oldbeavo

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Re: What are y'all doing for the #!@#$& hive Beetles?
« Reply #27 on: August 10, 2017, 07:30:20 pm »
I am unsure if the SHB's move into stressed hives, more like they invade any hive but only survive in stressed hives.
Go to topic on "Splits" and we have a bee keeper who has done nothing to 9 hives for 4 years, why? Again is SHB survival in a hive bee related, bee aggression to SHB or good strong hives.

Offline derekNGA

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Re: What are y'all doing for the #!@#$& hive Beetles?
« Reply #28 on: August 13, 2017, 08:20:54 am »
Hive beetles are intetesting annoyances.
Ive not found anything that Ive tried really do any good.
But, it seems with me and my bees, text book or others experience does not apply!  I seem to be the odd ball.
I have 7 hives.  Out of the 7, one this year hive and one last year hive are heavily infested.  Those two hives are the hardest working and most active hives I have.  The flip side, which goes against things stated, I have a hive that has struggled all year.  Queenless, have put in many frames of brood, egg, larvae (they never did make a queen), currently they have been dying off and for a while they do nothing.  No forage flights nothing.  Just hang around the entrace and stand there like statues.  That weak, dying hive, has hardly no beetles.  Ya gotta hunt hard to find one.  My other 5 hives, the beetles are there, but not too bad.  Im still learning and trying and hoping for a solution with these pests. 

Van, Arkansas, USA

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Re: What are y'all doing for the #!@#$& hive Beetles?
« Reply #29 on: August 13, 2017, 09:27:30 am »
Mr. Derek, the beetles are not in your dying hive due to the fact there is no larva or pollen stores to feed Beetle larva.  Your most active hive that is infested the most probably has the most pollen and larva thus attracting the most beetles.

The freeze spray mentioned above on this thread will work, it is deadly absolutely deadly on Beetles.

Sorry about your dying hive.
Blessings

Offline derekNGA

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Re: What are y'all doing for the #!@#$& hive Beetles?
« Reply #30 on: August 13, 2017, 10:07:22 am »
Thanks Van, Arkansas....that makes sense.
One thing I forgot to add to my list of how they are intetesting annoyances....before I got my packages of bees my hives were set up and already had beetles in them.  Using the plastic foundations someone said they were drawn to the wax coating on them.  This spring in March, i had to buy an emergency hive, one of those already assembled, just open the box and go types. I had it inside my shop painting it, had the frames with plastic foundation sitting off to the side and would find beetles on the insides of the boxes when I would go out to put another coat of paint on....I just assume again, the smell from the plastic foundation smell was on the wood and that was enough to attract them.  Seems they have a pretty good sniffer!

Offline eltalia

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Re: What are y'all doing for the #!@#$& hive Beetles?
« Reply #31 on: August 13, 2017, 06:28:26 pm »
Seems they have a pretty good sniffer!

Like flies to a flesh wound, you will always get one. It is up to you or your
carer as to whether or not the wound ends up maggoted.

But really I post as I again read your package came with beetles - stowaways.
Having read similar reports elsewhere I am gobsmacked such transfer of
beetles is even possible under due diligence. As I know very little on the
topic I am left to wonder... how does this happen at the host BKs end of the
supply chain or does it?

Cheers.

Bill

Offline Fishing-Nut

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Re: What are y'all doing for the #!@#$& hive Beetles?
« Reply #32 on: August 15, 2017, 10:28:03 pm »
I'm pretty interested in this topic and other people's opinions. I appreciate the replies y'all.
Take a kid fishing !

Offline DeepCreek

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Re: What are y'all doing for the #!@#$& hive Beetles?
« Reply #33 on: August 28, 2017, 04:19:37 pm »
NC and/or SC is where the beetles initially entered the US.

Your source?, as I try to defend NC.  The SHB was discovered in the US in 1996 and the movement of migratory bees by beekeepers in Florida transported the beetle to other states.

Offline BeeMaster2

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Re: What are y'all doing for the #!@#$& hive Beetles?
« Reply #34 on: August 28, 2017, 07:04:43 pm »
Bill,
Most hives in the US, especially in the south, have SHBs. It is very difficult to remove every beetle from every hive. Even if you did, by the next morning there would bee more beetles in the hive that you just cleared.
My father in law's hives were inspected and certified to be mite and SHB free. 2 weeks later I helped him remove honey Supers. Some of his hives were full of beetles.
Jim
Democracy is 2 wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote.
Ben Franklin

Offline eltalia

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Re: What are y'all doing for the #!@#$& hive Beetles?
« Reply #35 on: August 28, 2017, 08:14:49 pm »


Bill,
Most hives in the US, especially in the south, have SHBs. It is very difficult to remove every beetle from every hive. Even if you did, by the next morning there would bee more beetles in the hive that you just cleared.
(edit)
Jim

Yeah, I get that Jim... as here there would be known areas of prolific
SHB habitation, so would it not follow BKs in those locations would
not supply packages?
Or is - as some boast - the trade so lucrative some do not give a rat's?
There was the direction my post was heading in :-)

Cheerio...

Bill





Offline PhilK

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Re: What are y'all doing for the #!@#$& hive Beetles?
« Reply #36 on: August 29, 2017, 09:22:51 am »
I think beetles are par for the course in environments that are prone. We have beetles in every single one of our hives, but in most cases there are only a few hanging around and they cause no problem. A few times we've had larger numbers in hives positioned in shade or a nuc that's been over run etc and have had to use an Apithor harbourage trap as a last resort (we tend not to use chemicals where we can avoid it) which clears them up beautifully. Once they are down to a manageable level we remove the trap.

We use some matts on some hives (the bees just tend to propolise them shut), some oil traps in between top bars (they don't seem to catch much), but for the most part we don't use anything and just rely on the strength of the colony to keep the beetles under control.

Offline BeeMaster2

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Re: What are y'all doing for the #!@#$& hive Beetles?
« Reply #37 on: August 30, 2017, 09:34:31 am »
Bill,
If all of the companies that have SHBs stopped producing nucs or packages, there would bee a severe shortage of bees here in the US. Nucs would probably bee so expensive that only the very rich could afford them.
Most of our bees are produced here in the south because we have a much longer bee season. Almost all hives in the south have SHBs.
Jim
Democracy is 2 wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote.
Ben Franklin

Offline eltalia

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Re: What are y'all doing for the #!@#$& hive Beetles?
« Reply #38 on: August 30, 2017, 10:50:46 am »
Bill,
If all of the companies that have SHBs stopped producing nucs or packages, there would bee a severe shortage of bees here in the US. Nucs would probably bee so expensive that only the very rich could afford them.
Most of our bees are produced here in the south because we have a much longer bee season. Almost all hives in the south have SHBs.
Jim

Maaate... that frank (honest) illumination is greatly appreciated.
Pretty much I am moved to send you a 20K strong pack of SHB free bees.
But from what you post the poe buggers would be rhap'd an' pillaged by
beetle within days of unpacking... hardly a tourist's sought greet ;-))))

Cheerio...

Bill

Offline BeeMaster2

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Re: What are y'all doing for the #!@#$& hive Beetles?
« Reply #39 on: August 30, 2017, 08:15:38 pm »
Thanks Bill but your bees would probably bee over run with SHBs in about a month. They would not know how to deal with them and the beetles would lay their eggs everywhere and then the bees would not remove them and the hive would be slimed.  When SHBS do enter your country it will take a while to find bees that have the genetics to survive with SHBs.
Jim
Democracy is 2 wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote.
Ben Franklin