Just found SHB in my hive.

[BeeSmart]

Hi all, I am new to beekeeping, and have spoken to lots of guys both pro and hobby. Yep it seems weird to put poison in a hive and that's why its important to be impeccable with your hive management. Keep strong hives, in the sun, and have a management program, what I worked out from almost everyone I spoke with, is no management will get you dead hives!

I am trialling the Blue bottom board, although I don't like that it does not kill the beetle, they get hunted out and move on. The theory is that the conditions don't suit the beetle re humidity so they wont stay anyway. Some are putting a tray under with Diamathius earth but this then defeats the ventilation factor. I have been told by guys that use them that there are no beetles in hive with blue bees bottom board. I am trialling it just to see for myself.

I use the Apithor trap, on the bottom boards as designed and have no problem. but at $7 bucks a throw, and it lasts only 3 months max, I am also trialling the other mentioned method of 5mm core flute with the gel in the centre. As someone else said, level hive left to right with slight tilt toward the entrance is how I set my hives up any way, just to deal with water, poison or not, but its my opinion that card board soaked in poison is more likely to have a water flow containing poison over a gel in the centre line of a 100mm trap.

Somewhere else on the forum here I saw the olive oil mentioned and he said he had killed beetles by the tons, that I like, because you can see the result, but its a mess when your moving hives, if I could get that one perfected I would be doing that as well.

As said, I have little experience but I do listen to everyone and take what makes sense to me.

[yantabulla]

I love these posts that start with "I'm new to beekeeping, but"..........

I am getting Apithor for $5.80 per trap from the manufacturer.  It is more expensive for smaller lots. Most people I know are selling honey for $7.00 to $12.00 per kilo.  So for less than the cost of two to three kilos of honey I can control SHB safely and very effectively.  I don't see the cost as a big problem considering I have no beetles and none of the upkeep that some of the other methods require.

The use of home made beetle traps using cockroach bait is illegal.  You would be contravening most of the pesticide related acts in whatever state you are in.

https://www.epa.nsw.gov.au/pesticides/pestmmngngNSW.htm

Admitting to illegal use of pesticides on a public forum is not wise and it harms the reputation of beekeepers who comply with legislation. 

The recent publicity involving Australian honey & pyrrolizidine alkaloids would have been pretty damaging to the honey industry.

Can you imagine a headline like "Australian Honey Contains Cockroach Poison"?

Please stop using unapproved chemical methods to control pests and diseases in your hives.

I think I need another break from this forum.   

[BeeSmart]

Thanks Yanta, some good points there.

[Honeycomb king]

Love your work yantabulla, keep it up.

[omnimirage]

I watched an expert speak of SHB a number of years back, and he stated that there was no evidence backing the chicken claim. Hardly conclusive information, but it's what I heard.

[Tommo]

I've been managing to keep beetles under control without resorting to insecticides, I don't like the idea of putting poison anywhere near my bees.
I'm just a hobbyist and my methods probably wouldn't scale up too well but I'll tell you what methods I use and hopefully someone will find it useful.

In my opinion building an oil trap into the bottom board is the best solution. I also find the oil traps that are placed between the frames/on the top bars extremely effective but take a lot more effort to keep them functioning. I've used the "better beetle blasters", "AJ's Beetle Eaters", "Silver Bullets" and "Beetle Jails". They all work well, but to reuse the "better Beetle Blasters" once they fill up with beetles you have to hose them out, and "AJ's Beetle Eaters" sometimes fall apart when you're trying to remove them. I'm not a fan of the "silver bullet" traps since they are top heavy and tend to tip over and leak everywhere whenever you bump the box, so the "beetle jails" and "Better Beetle Blasters"(despite the difficulty in cleaning) are my favourites. I prefer vegetable oil over diatomaceious earth since it's less of a problem if you do spill some, DE spreads out everywhere while oil just goes straight down where you can mop it up, spilling either is a very bad idea though.
Oil traps seem to become a LOT more effective once you have a few dead beetles in there, so it's a good idea not to clean them too thoroughly. You can also put the traps in empty and fill them with a large syringe(without a needle on the end), this reduces the chance of spilling oil. I like to use at least one trap for every 2 boxes and I find that they fill up completely pretty quickly, so need to be checked often, but it gives me a reason to check on my bees, so it's not a problem for me. I just empty them or swap them out when I do my swarm inspections.

 I also find felt type hanging mats and chux cloths are effective but they kill a few bees as well as the beetles, it's a good trade off though, there's often 30+ beetles for every bee stuck in the trap, I wouldn't put them in the brood box though, just in case the queen goes exploring. I hate the DE traps that sit on the bottom board, they just provide moth larvae with a place to hang out, but some people have good success with them so they might be worth a go. 
So there are a bunch of options available that don't require putting insect poison into an insect colony and hoping that things don't go sideways, but that's always an option if you want to take the(albeit small) risk. Insecticide based traps work well for a lot of people and are generally considered safe so long as you use commercially available traps rather than making your own.

[yantabulla]

Great review of beetle control Tommo.

[JasonP]

My thoughts exactly Tommo, I just use a couple of AJ beetle traps or beetle jails and that seems to keep them under control. Using any sort of pesticide against the manufactures directions is foolish and dangerous, lets not forget we are making food here.

[Wombat2]

Good summary Tommo . I would just add that if you have lots of ventilation and light (big air vents) in the lid the beetle will hid in the frames away from the light and the bees will be onto them and drive them down. The beetle will seek out the darkest corner which is the back of the hive on the bottom board. That's the best place for a bottom board trap. If you work with the natural activity of the beetle you can have more effective control so with that reasoning top located traps are the less effective. The reason you find beetle in the lid is realitivly dark with small vents and low numbers of bees so the beetle breed with minimal disruption. You have to force them out of the lid and let the bees help you drive them to the trap.

[PhilK]

Good point Wombat, but I have large vents in my lids - turns out the bees decided they were better off with propolis closing them up.