BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER > DISEASE & PEST CONTROL

Hive beetles

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Nwf Bees:
Hello , I am currently having trouble with hive beetles I am in the Pensacola area I have already lost two hives to beetles I have tried dryer sheets and swiffers and even the oil traps between the frames , all the methods catch a few but not most of them are there any other ways ? I am thinking about doing oil trays under each hive but I will have to get creative because they are 5 frame hives. For some reason hive beetles are my biggest problem in my hives even my strong ones have them...

Michael Bush:
Compress the colonies.  Remove any empty boxes and any infested combs.  Any boxes not fully occupied by bees should be removed.  If you have a freezer to put them in, that would be a help.  Probably double wrap them in plastic garbage bags (SHB larvae will chew through the plastic, but if they freeze fast enough two should hold them).  The problem is that there aren't a high enough density of bees to protect the comb.

iddee:
And get them out of the shade, and into full sunlight.

Nwf Bees:
I will reduce them as much as I can like you said...they are in the most sun I have...full sun from roughly 9am - 4:30 pm.

FloridaGardener:
@NWF Bees

I'm about an hour from Pensacola.  Sorry about your hives.  I've been using Dixie H700 towels, and roughing those towels up with 60-grit sandpaper, to give bees a head start on pulling up fuzzy filaments that trap SHB.

I've been chatting with a researcher at USDA who is looking to run trials on a new SHB bait. His work will be published soon. When it is, I'll post a link here. 

There will be two types of traps.
1) An in-hive yeast and kairomone-based putty bait in a CD case, which bees cannot access. SHB are dead by the time the poison hits their intestinal tract.
2) An external trap at a distance from the hive. He says the long-distance traps are less effective, because to SHB, nothing smells quite as great as a beehive.

If you'd like to be included in helping with the trials, PM me.  BTW, he recommends if the hive is slimed, to freeze not just frames but hive bodies & all woodware too, because SHB eggs can remain in crevices.

He also says, leave hives in the hot sun.  He's in Gainesville, it's as hot as Pensacola. There's reduced honey production because of so much fanning to stay cool, but it's better than hives lost to SHB.

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