Small Hive Beetle in South Australia

[omnimirage]

I've seen Small Hive Beetle near the riverland and have heard reports of others also spotting SHB near there. Where else in South Australia are you guys hearing about them? I suspect over the comings years South Australia is going to become progressively infected with SHB.

A more seasoned beekeeper than I says to me not to worry about SHB, he seems to think they won't thrive in this state due to our ants being prone to eating their babies when they're burrowed in the ground. I'm not sure if this is true, I hope it is, one of my hives died to SHB a few years ago and I haven't seen any of them in my apiary since though I am rather paranoid that they're still around, somewhere (hopefully none inside my hive).

[BeeMaster2]

Omni,
How cold are your winters. How deep does the ground freeze during your winters?  If you get a 6? frost line, they will only survive your winter in a hive. During your fall inspection, removing every SHB can really help rid them.
Jim

[Acebird]

A more seasoned beekeeper than I says to me not to worry about SHB, he seems to think they won't thrive in this state due to our ants being prone to eating their babies when they're burrowed in the ground.

I would feed the ants if it got rid of the SHB.

[Ben Framed]

A more seasoned beekeeper than I says to me not to worry about SHB, he seems to think they won't thrive in this state due to our ants being prone to eating their babies when they're burrowed in the ground.

I would feed the ants if it got rid of the SHB.

😁😁😁

[Bamboo]

Omni,
How cold are your winters. How deep does the ground freeze during your winters?  If you get a 6? frost line, they will only survive your winter in a hive. During your fall inspection, removing every SHB can really help rid them.
Jim

Jim
It doesn't get that cold in Sth Australia to freeze the ground, a couple of frosts maybe but nothing like what you guys get. Frosty morning then a beautiful sunny day afterwards. Sth Australia does a great line in Red wine so freezing conditions don't apply. Taylors a vineyard in Clare just won the best Cabernet Sauvignon in France against 250 world entries at a mere $200 a bottle.

[moebees]

How dry is it?  Hive beetles need moist ground.

[omnimirage]

sawdstmakr,

Winter nights here are not cold. I don't check the weather, but coldest I've seen in my lifetime is 28.4 Fahrenheit during the coldest of winter nights.

moebees,

I live in the driest state on the driest continent in the world. It's rather barren. It's great that they need moist ground because that doesn't really happen much, water bottlenecks life here.

[BeeMaster2]

Omni,
With your weather being so dry, I would make a serious effort to kill every SHB, if you ever find them, on every inspection. The odds are if you Don?t have them and you do not buy bees from an area that has them, you will not get them.
Jim

[moebees]

Yeah I knew Australia was generally pretty dry but didn't know about your location.  I suspect you won't hive a problem with SHB unless there is a moist area created by a spring or leaking water pipe or something they can get too. 

[omnimirage]

I've only spotted SHB once, in the one hive they destroyed,  though I don't actively look for them.

I want to make some splits from my apiary where SHB was once present and move these splits to a new apiary location, but I'm concerned that there's SHB hiding in the hives still and that I'd spread them if I was to do so. Is this a valid concern? It's been about two years since I've seen any sign of SHB, but I know they can hide. The dry scrub where the infected apiary is located, is rather close to a large river, maybe about 10-15 miles down the road, I'm not sure if that's relevant at all. They are actually spreading from the state that's on the opposite side of the river.

[BeeMaster2]

Omni,
The area under or very close under your hives is what you are concerned about. The eggs hatch into small worms, and when they are ready to pupate, they crawl out of the hive to pupate. If the ground is very dry and they cannot get to moist ground, they will die.
They are easy to spot, before you move your hive look at every frame and look for black dots in the cells or in cracks and in the bottom of the box.
The adults can smell your hive from (supposedly) 5 miles away and fly to it.
Jim

[eltalia]

I've only spotted SHB once, in the one hive they destroyed,  though I don't actively look for them.

I want to make some splits from my apiary where SHB was once present and move these splits to a new apiary location, but I'm concerned that there's SHB hiding in the hives still and that I'd spread them if I was to do so. Is this a valid concern? It's been about two years since I've seen any sign of SHB, but I know they can hide. The dry scrub where the infected apiary is located, is rather close to a large river, maybe about 10-15 miles down the road, I'm not sure if that's relevant at all. They are actually spreading from the state that's on the opposite side of the river.

Certainly is a "valid concern".
Do not be part of the problem, seek and destroy... it aint hard fella.
I do not have SHB in my parts of this Valley, never had them at my old
Farm.. > 300kms away... but I still looked and do say every time I am
in a hive body today, of anyone's.

The mighty Murray....?... SHB it is said to fly 15 American miles.
These guys have dealt with SHB moreover than us... lissen up, soak
up the experience levels.


Bill

[220]

I don't know if any of Aus gets cold enough to kill off SHB, my yard get about 60 nights a year below freezing and I have SHB.
I still don't know if they are surviving the winter or if they are being reintroduced each spring. There are lots of bees brought into our district in spring for pollination work and a very good chance SHB comes with them.

A few frost pictures, we don't get a permanent ground freeze but it gets plenty cold enough to freeze the top couple of inches of moisture in the soil for up to 12hrs or more at a time

[BeeMaster2]

220,
Frost will not kill the pupae that are burrowed in the ground for the winter. The ground would have to freeze to a depth of 6 to 12? to kill them.
The odds are real good that the pollinators are bringing them in.
Is the areas under the hives are very dry, they will not survive.
Jim

[omnimirage]

Yeah I don't think it gets cold enough here for them to freeze. Underneath my hives it's just sand, it seems pretty dry, I'm not sure but sand doesn't seem to contain moisture well... maybe that's the reason I've seen no sigh of SHB since, maybe after the first attack they weren't able to reproduce.

I will look around for SHB. I didn't realise they were so easy to spot. I might split them after all and just closely examine the frames that I take from these hives to check for SHB.