What has the shb done to our feral colonies

[SlickMick]

As a point of curiosity I wonder what effect the shb has had on our feral colonies. Have they disappeared or have survivors found ways of dealing with the shb?

Mick

[Anybrew2]

Yeah good one Mick, I am unsure this way but all I can say is I don't see many feral colonies these days.
I only know of two,and of course like us all i am Bee aware.

Cheers
Steve

[Dave86]

I know of about 20 or 30 feral hives around Toowoomba. I work for the council up here so I see them in my travels. I inspect them when I can and have seen beetles at the entrances. Most of them are strong hives but council can't make a decision on what to do with them. Some of them are in major parks and others are in street trees and trees in the outer regions.

As a side not I have a timber cutter that comes across feral hives a bit around leyburn, I only got onto him about 2 weeks ago and he's yet to call me about hives in trees he cuts but he reckons they come up frequently.

[BeeMaster2]

SlickMick,
How long have your bees been dealing with SHB?
As with any new parasite/problem, it takes a while for nature to weed out the week ones and find those that have the genetics to deal with it. Once they figure it out then it is only the weak hives that get taken over by the SHBs. Same thing happened in the late 1900s with wax moths when they were first introduced he in the states.
Jim

[SlickMick]

Hi Jim,

I have been out of touch for the last few years or so as we moved house and downsized. At the time I had 2 hives left from half a dozen (full hives and nucs), the others being knocked down by the shb before I realised what was happening. I had been collecting swarms and could not deal with the beetle adequately with small colonies. The remaining hives were well populated and healthy. At the time I was in the process of trying to get bottom board traps in the hives, unfortunately not quickly enough. Perhaps I should have combined hives to populate them appropriately.

I am about to reconnect in a small way and I was wondering what happened in the meantime with the feral colonies. Hopefully there are some that the survivors have learned to deal with the pest, as you suggest and will spread their genetics generously around the community.

Mick

I guess that on my part I have to learn to manage the hives better than I have done in the past.

[max2]

I'm a bit North from Brisbane ( Crystal Waters near Maleny)
The bees in my hives have definitely learned a thing ot two regarding dealing with SHB ( and we have learned too).On the other hand, I don't see as many wild hives as we used to. They are around and I would love to be able to catch a few more.

[Oldbeavo]

Do hives that are well ventilated deal with SHB better, or is it that SHB doesn't like the ventilation?

[Michael Bush]

SHB don't like low humidity.  If the situation is such that ventilation lowers the humidity in the hive, it will make it harder for the SHB.  I think that's one of the reasons full sun helps.  It drives out the moisture.

[Oldbeavo]

We run floor vents and lid vents, floor vent is about 10x2" across the middle if the floor and 2 3/4" in each end of the lid.
So far SHB is not an issue though we do see a few occasionally, I squash them if i can.
It is interesting watching the bees try and grab them to throw them out.
May be being in Victoria helps the humidity.

[Honeycomb king]

G day slick milk.
 By luck he survived, til a preacher arrived.
   I use integrated pest management for hive beetle, that is I use another insect to pray on it. After trialing many insect varieties we found that the "brown earwig" that is Labidora truncata (check on that spelling if you r going to look into it). By placing in a male and female  in the base of each hive we have year round protection from the small hive beetle. I'm about 3 years into the trialing and it works great, that is if I was to inspect 100 of our hives and found 3 hive beetle I would be concerned.
Here in Victoria we don't have the same issue with the shb as you do up north. So here's where you come into it (or anyone else who is reading this). If you can get hold of some brown earwig and put them into your hives it would be great to see how it works up there. I'm assuming that you can find some brown earwig,  Google Labidura truncata. It's common in Victoria, just tap your hive tool on a old fence post or send the kids out into the garden with a bug catcher.
 I think the black earwig is more common up north but we found that it didn't work and just left the hive where as the brown was happy to stay and not hassled by the bee's at all.

Thanks let know how you go.

[BeeMaster2]

That is interesting HC King.
I have been killing black earwigs in the STB of my hives for years. If they stay in the hive do you think they will do the job?
Jim

[herbhome]

Screen bottom boards with oil traps underneath seem to help the bees to control them by themselves. I saw plans for bottom boards with screen in the corners and traps underneath I will try next year.

As for the ferals, I think they swarm out when SHB get obnoxious, leading to more swarmy bees.

[Lancej]

Hi Jim,
Did a little bit of reading about the earwigs, the black ones are the common European earwig which in Australia are considered a pest. The Australian brown earwig is more of a predator and is meant to be beneficial in gardens etc. Until reading HC Kings post I didn't know there was a difference. Lance

[Honeycomb king]

G day sawdust maker. Not sure which species you have over there. We have 85 identified species in Australia, with possibly double that number still not yet identified.  We did trial the black European which is here (Forficula auricularia) and found that it left the hive. The brown are quite happy to stay and breed, which is why we suggest putting a male and female into a hive. Female is smaller and has a simple or outward curving set of  cerci (pincers)  the male is larger with inward curving cerci. If they breed well at certain times of the year there can be lots of young, they will leave to find there own territory or you can just tip them out.
 We trialed many insect species some with comical results as they ran from the hives or the bees attached them. It's quite interesting how the bees are very happy to allow some species yet not others. Earwig have been used before in cropping as a beneficial insect so was on our list to try, but as it moves so much  slower than the shb I didn't think it would be of any use. Once placed in our observation tank it was amazing how it searched the beetle out. Labidura is not a problem to bee large or in stored comb, in fact it is predator to wax moth as well. Would be interested to know how it goes with varroa, as we don't yet have it here I can't trial it.
 Any way give it a go and let me know how it works for you. Happy to have any sort of feed back, it's a much cheaper option than chemicals or traps.

[BeeMaster2]

Thanks HC King,
I plan on adding a pair when I get a small swarm for my OH in the spring. Now to see if I can ring the brown ones.
Jim

[Dallasbeek]

Thanks HC King,
I plan on adding a pair when I get a small swarm for my OH in the spring. Now to see if I can ring the brown ones.
Jim

Jim, unfortunately, from what I can tell on the internet, that's strictly an Australian (maybe NZ as well) critter.  Almost worth moving Down Under, isn't it?  Wonder if somebody could send us a few?

Gary

[SlickMick]

G day slick milk.
 By luck he survived, til a preacher arrived.
   I use integrated pest management for hive beetle, that is I use another insect to pray on it. After trialing many insect varieties we found that the "brown earwig" that is Labidora truncata (check on that spelling if you r going to look into it). By placing in a male and female  in the base of each hive we have year round protection from the small hive beetle. I'm about 3 years into the trialing and it works great, that is if I was to inspect 100 of our hives and found 3 hive beetle I would be concerned.
Here in Victoria we don't have the same issue with the shb as you do up north. So here's where you come into it (or anyone else who is reading this). If you can get hold of some brown earwig and put them into your hives it would be great to see how it works up there. I'm assuming that you can find some brown earwig,  Google Labidura truncata. It's common in Victoria, just tap your hive tool on a old fence post or send the kids out into the garden with a bug catcher.
 I think the black earwig is more common up north but we found that it didn't work and just left the hive where as the brown was happy to stay and not hassled by the bee's at all.

Thanks let know how you go.

G'day HC King

'Who agreed straightaway to baptise him'.

This is a really interesting development! Do you realise you could be on the edge of an exporting business selling the brown earwig to the US?

I have only the one hive these days but recall the problems that I had some years ago with the SHB and I don't really want to go down that road again. So, I'm going to try and round up some brown earwigs and see what they can really do. I shall let you know.

Mick

[BeeMaster2]

Thanks HC King,
I plan on adding a pair when I get a small swarm for my OH in the spring. Now to see if I can ring the brown ones.
Jim

Jim, unfortunately, from what I can tell on the internet, that's strictly an Australian (maybe NZ as well) critter.  Almost worth moving Down Under, isn't it?  Wonder if somebody could send us a few?

Gary

Thanks Gary. I m still going to try taking one of the black earwigs from one in an  out side hive and see what they do in the observation hive. Not sure if I have ever seen them in the hive but they are always in the TBS and in the oil trays when they're dry.
Jim

[Honeycomb king]

Don't just try the black earwig, try any other insect. The point is that the insect world is vast and nasty . The shb taste good to Labidura it must taste good to another insect in another part of the world. Yeah sure through my horticultural knowledge I had a starting point, as I've used integrated pest management in production horticulture before coming back to the family business (once a beekeeper always a bk).  I found the Labidura (brown earwig), on a list of beneficial pest for wheat crops from a study by students at longernong agricultural college back in the 80s,  so it went onto my list. We trialed about 30 different species. I would never want to send our insects overseas, I think man has made that mistake too many times.other insects could of also worked but we wanted something that would not become a pest itself, whether to bees, beekeepers, farmers, orchardists or the environment.
   Labidura is not perfect, well that is any IPM (integrated pest management) needs balance don't send 2 earwig to eat 100 shb and their 10000 larvae overnight and then call me and say it didn't work. It is excellent in prevention and very good in control if that balance is kept either by you adding more or by their own breeding.
 NB. Labidura truncata is one of the only non social insects to care and protect its young, well until they are big enough to run, then mum decides to eat the kids, as I started with the insect world is nasty.
  Good luck over there try your agricultural college s or government departments for assistance. I've been going to publish a paper on this subject for a year or so, perhaps I will at the end of this season, that will give more details etc. I just wanted it to be tested in other environments first.

[Dallasbeek]

HC King,, i was only kidding about somebody sending us some.  I'm a Master Gardener and have been trained in IPM and have had a special interest in entomology, particularly fighting the imported fire ant, which causes about two billions dollars damage in Texas alone each year.  It was brought to the US from Argentina in dirt used as ballast.  It had natural enemies in Argentina, but somehow they didn't bring them along.