beetle larva makes bettlejuice help with shb

[greenismycolor]

Hi all, please help!

If any of you remember, I added 2 brood frames (about a week ago) from my original hive to my package hive that I installed the last days of May, that didn't seem to be doing so well....today i made an inspection of this hive, and found...new bees, bees emerging, some uncapped larva, some still capped brood, and a gillion small worms crawling every where, on the 2 frames that I added. Also some worms on a frame beside these two, but they didn't seem to be comming from the cells, just on the frames. I removed as many as I could and squished them, but I didnt' take away the whole frame because of the brood emerging. What danger are they to the bees? and recommendation for what to do to control or kill what is left, or prevention??? [/COLOR][/COLOR]

[Dr.Wax]

I'm afraid that does sound like small hive beetle larvae although it could be wax moth larvae. You are next door to me in Alabama so I'm betting small hive beetle larvae. I had an infestation of it in one of my nucs earlier this summer.

Have you seen any black beetles in this hive?

Do you have a solid bottom board? Are there larvae there?

Whether it be SHB or wax moth this colony sounds near collapse to me.

You said you are seeing a "gillion" larvae so you should move fast (like tomorrow morning) whatever you do.

How big is your other hive? You could take a chance that it would clean up the mess by transferring all frames and bees but the queen to it.

It sounds like the best bet would be to brush the bees from the frames into a box you place onto the top of your strong hive separated by newspaper. In other words do a combine. Then freeze the frames from the infested hive and after thawing transfer them to the strong hive.

Later you could do a split after ordering a SHB trap (I recommend the West trap). You could hold that other queen aside until then.

[greenismycolor]

Dr. Wax

Thank you for your quick reply.

QUOTE: Have you seen any black beetles in this hive?

I saw and killed 2 when I inspected today. I also looked at some pic of the bettle larva, and yes they are the same.

My bottom board is a solid. I didn't see any larva there, it seemed that they were all emerging just now.

So, according to the information that I have recieved I should: Freeze all the frames in this hive...do a combination with my stronger hive..which is a 10 frame deep, working on a honey super. Medicate my soil, and add a SHB trap. Do I harvest what honey I have, or freeze it as well, fearing infestation??...because the larva was mainly in the 2 frames I took from my eldest hive to give this one a boost. So this means now both of my hives are infested.

After freezing and adding back to the now combined hive, do I do anything to them or just give them back and let the bees clean it?

green

[King bee apiary]

Being in the south you would already have shb in both hives anyway. The only difference is one hive is strong and can keep the beetle population down to a toleerable level and one hive that is weak an unable to control the beetle population and/or the larva population.

I would look throught this hive again and see if the queen is still there. If she is there I'd shake her and the other bees in to a nuk with fresh frames, add a frame of bees, eggs, larva from the strong hive. Take all the old frames and freeze them for 24 hours, then reuse them. With small population hives must be kept in smaller nuks here in the south during the summer months. Splits and summer swarms are risky this time of year due to shb. I have found that combining hives can lead to dead queens as well.

If your hive smell as if it is fermented it may be too late. Good luck with the bugs and keep those hives strong, in the sun and watched over!

[Dr.Wax]

That plan may work also.

But you didn't mention how strong your other hive is so hopefully it can afford to donate frames without being overly weakened and becoming vulnerable itself to SHB. In that case you could lose both hives.

I think both options have a good chance of success but mine is less risky. I've been burnt once by SHB and I wish you luck.