small hive beetles?

[FRAMEshift]

Hey Frameshift, I believe that what your saying is that you will spray the insides of whatever your going to put your bees in before you put the bees inside and to that I would agree thats a good idea. I don't think that at this particular time I would spray the bees directly, I may have missed the mark with your last reply, if I have my apologies. I myself have only one hive and I am reluctant to try spraying the bees directly as to the fact I don't know what harm it would if any do to them.

I talked this over with my daughter since my last post.  I was thinking of spraying the bees directly in the package cage, because we don't use any chemicals in the hive.  I thought that since the bees are treated with God-knows-what before we get them that it would not make much difference.  She pointed out that the alcohol would probably hurt the bees, so we may try some non-alcohol treatment with thymol, etc if we can get the substance into solution.  Not sure this will work.  We will definitely do a sugar shake with the package cage to knock back the mites.

             I also read in the ABJ from someone in Florida that he  took a piece of lexan the same size of the inner cover and replaced the inner cover with it allowing more light in the hive. He stated that within a month he has noticed a drastic reduction in shb's. I have a piece of plexiglass that I am fitting to size on my hive right now to try it. And you never know. a combination of both ways might work even better.
                 Scoobee

I could increase light just by removing the bottom board below my screened bottom.  I have heard some concerns about too much light interfering with the queen laying.  Might also make the bees more likely to swarm to get away from the light.  Any thoughts on that?

[scoobee]

That might work and was also a concern with to much light for me. I emailed the person that wrote the article about the lexan and what he did was, he replaced the inner cover with the lexan then took a couple of bricks on top, then the top cover  so as not to allow to much light. I guess you could adjust the height and light to your comfort.



                    Scoobee

[Sparky]

Let us know how the plastic top works for you. I would think that it would make it hot as the devil inside.

[Meadlover]

That is a dirty little secret.  They must fly with swarms too, because all of these hives are from swarms, or cutouts.  They have not been transported from the south. 

Do you actually know they fly with the swarm, rather than flying from another hive?  Have you seen them in a newly trapped swarm, like in a clean cardboard box you just caught them in?

Swarms are definitely a vector for SHB.
I collected a cut out from inside a wall, and a swarm on a tree earlier in the year and both had SHB in them.

ML

[Paynesgrey]

Down here for ventilation they remove the bottom boards and Varroa mit counting/sticky boards much of the summer for ventilation, but I have also been told by many that having solid bottom boards on gives the beetles more places to hide. Bottom oil pans are widely recommended for below the screened BB, for Varoa and the SHB. I have not heard anyone complain or mention that not having a solid bottom board has affected laying. I guess if it does, it is better than the beetles getting out of hand and sliming the whole hive :)

We were watching the Ohio Beekeeping series on pests last night, which is so old that it does not mention SHB. It said that wax moths are not _as much_ :) a problem in the north and north east as down south, because the winters do kill them out, and they have to migrate north each year, so it takes a couple more months for them to get far north, but that down here in the south, they can really get a standing population built up.

I hope for you that the SHB will not be able to survive the bitter cold winters up there, and population will at least cut down each year. They are said to fly up to 50 miles a night, so I can see how they spread every year. 10 nights is 500 miles...