West Beetle Trap

[Chick]

Bought 2. Put them on a couple of hives. In 24 hours, one had about a dozen beetles in it and the other one had about 100 bees in it. Why? Apparently, the screen portion, had slid forward over the oil filled tray, allowing the bees to get in the oil. How many beetles would you expect to see in 24 hours? I was surprised, as I had just broke the hives down, and saw no signs of beetles!

[HAB]

Last year we were over run with SHB. Put West SHB traps on and had your experience with Bees in the oil in a few until we learned to double check after inserting them.

We stopped using oil and now only use liquid dish washing soap. So Much Less Mess To Clean. The cheaper the better. Mix it about half the strength you do to wash dishes. Empty the dead SHB and VMites every Monday, and refill. This year we haven't seen more than a half dozen SHB when removing the tops. But find them all along, dozen to dozens, in the trap. And so far, only a light load of VMites. West SHB Traps have done a fantastic job allowing us to grow to 22 Hives. But its critical that you keep that slotted cover on correctly and the oil or soapy water below it.

[Chick]

What gets me is that it's not rocket science how the slotted cover fits on the tray. Of course, once you get the brood box in place, you can't see the cover, but somehow, it gets displaced, BUT HOW?

[Flyman]

Then you could do like I did and forget the cover all together:doh:. This was not a bee friendly environment. However, you usually only forget once.