Just how fast can these shb reproduce?
Situation:
On July 12, this year, I created a 5 frame nuc. Four frames of brood and one frame of food and I saw one shb. Each frame full of attendees, also I shook extra bees in and added a beautiful queen. Queen released next day and all seems well. Two days later the nuc was robbed. I immediately reduced the entrance to 3/8 inch but the damage was already done. I moved the nuc after dark to a new location with another frame of food out of site of my apiry. Again robbers found and keyed in on this particular Nuc. I have 6 other 5 frame nucs, no problems.
Now I am frustrated and determined to save this hive so I placed the hive in a new 5 frame nuc with a screened bottom (made for queenless starter hive) added water in a sponge and have controlled entrance device: full open, ventilation only, or queen excluder, and again, presented a frame of food, third time btw.
So, now, July 16, time to clean the old nuc (4 days old) with 50-100 dead bees in the bottom of the nuc. The bees died as a result of robbing is my GUESS. I could not believe my eyes:::: there were 100's of shb larva, 1/8 inch crawling all over the dead bees. The nuc was 4 days old, that is what has me so surprised. Enlighten me as to the reproduction of the shb??? Yes, the nuc was weak from robbing, but 4 days is alarming.
This area is Northern Arkansas, I trap beetles with Freeman Bottom Board and have caught as many as 20 beetles in one night in a single hive. I have no way to determine how many beetles avoided my trap. So understand we are talking a lot of beetles. You beeks in the North are blessed with few shb. My hives are strong, some 3 deeps with supers and I keep beetles to a few per hive. I use freeze spray (minus 62F) to kill individual beetles when I conduct inspections.
How do you beeks manage shb in places like Florida or Arizona?
Thank you, thank you so much in advance for your reply.