Hammered by hive beetles last year

[jalentour]

Last season was a tough year with beetle infestation.  I was looking to add to the beetle blaster with the shop towel in the hive.  I was wondering what type of towels others are using?  Mann Lake advertises a Brawney Dine-A-Max towel, but it seems expensive.  I have too many hives to invest in a screened bottom board for each hive and nuc. 

[Beeboy01]

I have been using Swiffer brand unscented microfiber dusting pads for SHB's. I cut them in half fluff them with a good shake and place them cross corner in the top box on top of the frames. The microfibers tangle in the horns or spines on the legs of the SHB's and immobilize them. They need to be checked every week because the bees will propolus the fibers.
  I also use the ground drench 3 or 4 times a year under my hives to kill any larva and break the life cycle. One other way to kill the little bast*rds  is to get a shallow 1 or 2 inch deep tray and make a wood frame for it that's covered with 1/4 inch screening. Fill the tray with some soapy water and cover with the screened frame. When you are inspecting a hive and pull a frame thats loaded with SHB's tap it on it's side against the screened tray. The SHB's will get knocked off the frame and drop through the screen into the soapy water and drown. Most if not all the bees on the frame will bounce off the screen and fly away. I've been using this method for years to keep the SHB population down in my hives.     

[iddee]

A screened bottom board won't help with SHB unless you have an oil pan beneath it. The best protection against SHB is full sun from daylight til dark.

[yes2matt]

Last season was a tough year with beetle infestation.  I was looking to add to the beetle blaster with the shop towel in the hive.  I was wondering what type of towels others are using?  Mann Lake advertises a Brawney Dine-A-Max towel, but it seems expensive.  I have too many hives to invest in a screened bottom board for each hive and nuc.

Me too. The local pros say that my colonies wouldn't  have succumbed to the SHB if they hadn't been weakened by the viruses (and maybe bacteria) carried by the varroa. But I'm saying the beetles were bad last year. I lost a couple colonies to them, and then the wax moths got my combs... where's the gripey/whiney emoticon?

I keep chickens, and I think that if the chickens had access to the ground around the hive, the larvae wouldn't make it far. BUT I also have coons. So I keep my chickens surrounded by chicken wire, and I put 800v electric charge on the chicken wire every couple seconds, just in (hopes) case a coon is touching it...

 If I put my chickens in/around my hives, will the electromagnetic pulse mess up the bees?

One of my nucs already has noticeable SHB activity, so I need to do something drastic, soon. A sunnier spot would require a chainsaw... which might be fun!

[GSF]

Last year was my absolutely worst SHB year ever. So far this year it looks more promising. A fellow beekeeper about 30 miles north of me said last year was a good year for him but this year he's eat up already. A different fellow beekeeper swears that SHBs alone took a strong hive out. He said one week it was okay with plenty of bees about a week later it was slimed with plenty of bees.

[cao]

Apparently it was a bad year for SHB for everyone.  My hive tool dispatched its fair share of them last year.  I got a feeling this year ain't gonna be any better.  I was cleaning up one of my deadouts about a month ago.  I brought the frames into the garage to get the dead bees out of the comb.  I was tapping the frames against the work bench to disloge the bees when I noticed some dead SHBs falling from the frames.  Upon closer inspection there was a patch of comb in the middle of the cluster at least the size of a silver dollar that was packed full of SHBs.  There was at least a half a dozen beetles in each cell.  After seeing this, I didn't feel quite so bad about the dead bees.  At least they took several hundred beetles with them.  I'm wondering how many beetles are in the rest of my hives.  I'm gonna have to get the oil in my pans early this year and have the hive tool at the ready.