@NWF Bees
I'm about an hour from Pensacola. Sorry about your hives. I've been using Dixie H700 towels, and roughing those towels up with 60-grit sandpaper, to give bees a head start on pulling up fuzzy filaments that trap SHB.
I've been chatting with a researcher at USDA who is looking to run trials on a new SHB bait. His work will be published soon. When it is, I'll post a link here.
There will be two types of traps.
1) An in-hive yeast and kairomone-based putty bait in a CD case, which bees cannot access. SHB are dead by the time the poison hits their intestinal tract.
2) An external trap at a distance from the hive. He says the long-distance traps are less effective, because to SHB, nothing smells quite as great as a beehive.
If you'd like to be included in helping with the trials, PM me. BTW, he recommends if the hive is slimed, to freeze not just frames but hive bodies & all woodware too, because SHB eggs can remain in crevices.
He also says, leave hives in the hot sun. He's in Gainesville, it's as hot as Pensacola. There's reduced honey production because of so much fanning to stay cool, but it's better than hives lost to SHB.