Howdy. I've been working on my shb control here in humid south Alabama, USA. So far I've modified my screened bottom board to handle an oil tray beneath it...I call it the
ISOT. I've got a couple of more small mods to do to it and it'll be ready to go. I think that will help with bottom entry and a good bit of in-hive beetle activity. I'm using Beetle Jail Jrs inside of the hive. The top of the hive (using telescoping/inner covers) has been a problem for me, though, in trying to combat the beetles entering there.
I have been reading of ya'll using "Chux Wipes" as a shb trap.Up here we refer to the Chux type of wipe as a "Handi Wipe". I picked up a couple packs of a off-brand called "Scrub Buddies". Eight for a dollar. Being an off brand I figure they may "fuzz" a bit more. I rinsed them and rung the water out of them and have thrown them in the clothes dryer with a couple of t-shirts to help with the "fuzzing". :)
My plans are to use the wipes on top of the inner cover. The inner cover is sealed so that the bees can not enter that area. The feeder/escape holes in the inner covers are screened over with #8 mesh screen (they propolised window screen to quickly) and if an inner cover has a notch cut for an entrance it is blocked, too.
One sheet would cover most of the inner covers of my 8-frame hives. A question I have is...how important is it that the wipes are folded over into a square? Will multi-layers work better than a single layer? I've seen that they've been used inside the hive and figure this might be the reason for folding so as not to block bee movement too much. Do you think a single layer on the inner cover would be enough of an obstacle to catch most of the beetles trying to enter that way? I figure on using something to hold the wipe firmly against the inner cover in the area immediately around the feeder holes so that a beetle will either crawl under the outer edges of the wipe and hit a dead-end or either will have to traverse the entire wipe before it makes it to the hole.
Lastly, it seems I read somewhere about the barbs that get caught in the fuzz...am I correct in thinking these are on the beetles' legs?
Thanks for any feedback!
Ed