Hood SHB trap

[Sherpa1]

Has anyone used the Hood small hive beetle trap? If so, were the beetles attracted to the apple cider vinegar, did the mineral oil kill the beetles, and once the beetles entered the trap were they able to crawl out again if they did not fall into the mineral oil.
I just installed one of these traps and will report on the results in a couple of weeks if nobody else has a report on them.

[sqkcrk]

Maybe Mike Hood could answer those questions for you. Call Clemson. That's where he works from, I believe.

[sc-bee]

Mike Hood
E-mail Address(es):
mhood@CLEMSON.EDU

[Sherpa1]

Thanks,
Just sent Dr. Hood an email. I will report back with the results.

[Sherpa1]

The following is my email to Dr. Hood and his response:

>Dr. Hood,
>I recently purchased the small hive beetle trap that you designed and have
>several questions regarding the most effective use of the trap. In the
>literature I noticed that apple cider vinegar was an attractant to the
>beetle but was not very lethal. Mineral oil was lethal but was not a good
>attractant. I noticed that the trap has three compartments. Do you
>recommend that mineral oil be placed in one of the compartments and apple
>cider vinegar be placed in the other two? Also is the trap designed to be
>a one-way trap. That is, if the beetle enters the trap is its escape
>prevented or must the beetle fall into the mineral oil to be trapped? I
>will share any suggestions that you have with other beekeepers on the
>beesource forum. Thank you for your time and your efforts to control this
>honey bee pest.

The 3 compartments have been added to the design of the trap within the
last month or so. One reason was to give the box extra support so that it
would not collapse when the box was stored without lid on. As you mention
this also offers the beekeeper 3 separate compartments. Yes, I'd place
vinegar in the center compartment and mineral oil in the other 2. SHB are
very mobile and will exit the trap sometimes if you only use vinegar in the
trap. But the mineral oil or probably any oil like vegetable oil disrupts
their traction and prevents them from being able to cross the sharp edge on
the lid. The beetles do not necessarily have to fall in the oil but they
hopefully will get the oil on the feet while they are walking around in the
trap. I plan this year to test exactly what you mention. I thought I'd go
ahead and get this integrated management tool on the market and let
beekeepers test other safe materials in the trap for SHB attractancy and
lethality. USDA is also developing a SHB attractant which I plan to test in
the trap. Last winter I had very few beetles go in the trap because the
beetles are not very active in cold weather and the bees are not chasing
them as much. I'd say you should be able to start catching beetles in late
March. I'm also thinking of placing the trap right inside the cluster to
trap overwintering beetles. Good luck with your trap. Please share this
information with other beekeepers and keep me posted on your results. Thanks.

Best regards,
Mike

[Janice Lane]

Any updates on how well it works? If SHB become a problem, I will use the Hood or West Trap. I know the West trap works... but it's 3x as expensive as the Hood trap.

Thanks,
Janice

[sc-bee]

Janice
See previous post on trap in this section' Have not had any updats since then however I am seeing a few in my colines now. Probably need to put traps in these but they look strong and hope the bees keep them under control.

[James Henderson]

I've had great results with the Hood Beetle Traps from this spring to date. I put a couple in one of my medium supers (one on each side and attached in a frame) in each hive and filled the traps half way with extra virgin olive oil (didn't have anything else in the pantry).

I've always noticed a few to a bunch of dead SHBs floating in the traps during inspections.

As the SHBs like dark places, I decided to run duct tape around one of the sides of one of traps in the supers to see if perhaps the taped traps will catch more compared to the untaped traps when I open up the upper supers.

I have one weak hive, separate from the other strong hives, which I seem to be raising more SHBs and wax moths than bees and honey. During my last inspection, both traps located in one of the brood chambers was loaded with dead SHBs.