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Author Topic: small hive beetle, when is it a problem?  (Read 3200 times)

Offline damienpryan

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small hive beetle, when is it a problem?
« on: October 23, 2018, 07:46:09 pm »
Hi all,

I see the odd small hive beetle in my hive (I spot maybe 1 or 2 per inspection).
Is it likely to cause any problems ?
I don't use any beetle traps.

I've kind of been assuming that such low numbers of SHB won't cause any problems, but I thought I better check with the brains trust ;-)

I'm in Melbourne and they are 8 stationary hobby hives.

Cheers

Damien

Offline cao

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Re: small hive beetle, when is it a problem?
« Reply #1 on: October 23, 2018, 09:17:00 pm »
I know that I'm on the other side of the world and bee keeping is local, but I do have experience with SHB.  I wish I didn't have. :sad:  One or two during an inspection is not a problem at all.  Still kill them if you can.  When you start seeing 10 to 20 in a hive, you need to start thinking about doing something other than just smashing them (reduce hive space, beetle traps, etc).  When you see 100-200 per hive, It requires immediate attention if you want to save the hive.  If you do nothing, then it is just a matter of time before the hive is dead.

This year was a bad one for me and the beetles.  I lost a couple of nucs and a full size hive to them this year(didn't catch them in time).  I would love it if I only saw 1-2 SHB when I inspected my hives.

Offline herbhome

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Re: small hive beetle, when is it a problem?
« Reply #2 on: October 23, 2018, 09:58:24 pm »
What cao said.

A strong hive will usually keep them in check but if the hive has problems, i.e. mites, queenless,disease etc.. the beetles will take advantage and soon overrun the hive. The remaining bees usually abscond in disgust. When making nucs I try to use more bees than I think are necessary- any weakness will be exploited. :smile:
Neill

Offline damienpryan

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Re: small hive beetle, when is it a problem?
« Reply #3 on: October 24, 2018, 07:16:30 pm »
Thanks guys.

I have requeened 4 hives but haven't noticed a big upswing in beetles.
I'll just ignore the 1 or 2 I see.

I think I'm just lucky in the geographic area I'm in.
I've only ever seen one slimed hive in Melbourne.

Cheers

Damien

Offline BeeMaster2

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Re: small hive beetle, when is it a problem?
« Reply #4 on: October 25, 2018, 09:52:25 pm »
I used to kill thousands of SHBs in my hives. They were in a shaded area most of the year. Now that they are usually in full sun from noon on I hardly see any. Bee sure your bees have lots of sun.
Jim
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Offline Sydney guy

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Re: small hive beetle, when is it a problem?
« Reply #5 on: December 23, 2018, 09:03:36 pm »
I use to worry about the shb and tried all sorts of things, but I have been really busy with work this year that I didn't get to tend to my bees as much, over the last couple of weeks I have been in the hives and they look better then ever, my queen's have been replaced and I expect they have swarmed.
The new Queen has raised some angrier bees that are not as nice to work with but I suspect handle the shb better. I will keep and eye on them, I only saw a few in each hive. I have apithor traps on standby which work great, but I think the bees look after themselves and we don't give them enough credit.

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Offline Acebird

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Re: small hive beetle, when is it a problem?
« Reply #6 on: December 24, 2018, 09:00:59 am »
I started with one or two in the hive and each year it got successfully worse and this was in upstate NY where there was not suppose to be a problem.  The hives did get testier but I can't claim that is because of the beetles or not.  As the beetle problem got worse so did the occurrence of fermented honey which may be a result of me washing the frames.  I don't know.
Brian Cardinal
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