Hive beetles

[Anthony Ritenour]

In your hive beetle traps, what do you use? Just mineral oil? Also, do any of use any other method to deal with them?

[Panhandle Bee man]

Cheap vegatable oil. Kills good, a lot cheaper than mineral oil, I also know of people who use water, and dish soap.

[slickbrightspear]

olive oil or corn oil or what ever is cheapest.

[brooksbeefarm]

I use a migatory lid, a screen bottomboard with a pan of veg. oil uder the screen bottomboard. With this setup the little buggers don't have many places to hide..The best preventive measure is to keep your hives strong..Good luck.Jack

[little55]

I had a commercial beek tell me to take one of those political signs and cut it into about 10 pieces with the holes that run inside those signs. Then take one of the pieces and slit it against the grain and fold it in half. You do not want to cut it completely in two. When you fold it you can see down the little holes at this point take fipronil or roach bait at wal mart and squirt it down the holes. Next you fold it back together and tape it where the bees cannot get to the bait. Then you place it in the brood area. The beetles can crawl in and eat the bait an die but the bees cannot. The only problem is I don't think this is an approved product for bee hives but he says it works.

[Panhandle Bee man]

laundry detergent works, also hydrated Lime

[Jim Williamson]

I had a commercial beek tell me to take one of those political signs and cut it into about 10 pieces with the holes that run inside those signs. Then take one of the pieces and slit it against the grain and fold it in half. You do not want to cut it completely in two. When you fold it you can see down the little holes at this point take fipronil or roach bait at wal mart and squirt it down the holes. Next you fold it back together and tape it where the bees cannot get to the bait. Then you place it in the brood area. The beetles can crawl in and eat the bait an die but the bees cannot. The only problem is I don't think this is an approved product for bee hives but he says it works.

It never ceases to amaze me what some folks will put inside their hives. Here is some, hopefully, scary information on fipronil:


Fipronil is a broad spectrum insecticide that disrupts the insect central nervous system by blocking the passage of chloride ions through the GABA receptor and glutamate-gated chloride channels (GluCl), components of the central nervous system. This causes hyperexcitation of contaminated insects' nerves and muscles. Insect specificity of fipronil may come from a better efficacy on GABA receptor but also on the fact that GluCl does not exist in mammals.

Fipronil is a slow acting poison. When mixed with a bait it allows the poisoned insect time to return to the colony or haborage. In cockroaches the feces and carcass can contain sufficient residual pesticide to kill others in the same nesting site. In ants, the sharing of the bait among colony members assists in the spreading of the poison throughout the colony. With the cascading effect, the projected kill rate is about 95% in 3 days for ants and cockroaches.

Toxic baiting with Fipronil has also been shown to be extremely effective in locally eliminating German wasps (yellowjackets). All colonies within foraging range are completely eliminated within one week.

Wildlife impacts include the following:

Fipronil is highly toxic to fish and aquatic invertebrates. Its tendency to bind to sediments and its low water solubility may reduce the potential hazard to aquatic wildlife.
Fipronil is toxic to bees and should not be applied to vegetation when bees are foraging.

[Jim Williamson]

Back to the topic at hand ...

Cider vinegar with a bit of ripe banana peel seems to attract SHB to the trap.

Of course, the flat side of a hive tool pressed firmly to their backsides also terminates their presence on the inner cover, which is where our colonies tend to herd the beetles. It is a very satisfying process and, to date, there has been no noticable resistance.

[Big John]

http://beekeeperlinda.blogspot.com/2...trap-saga.html

Look at Linda's Bees, making the sonney-nel small hive beetle trap, she has a good idea on the traps and recipe to attrack SHB.

[idav5d]

I had a commercial beek tell me to take one of those political signs and cut it into about 10 pieces with the holes that run inside those signs. Then take one of the pieces and slit it against the grain and fold it in half. You do not want to cut it completely in two. When you fold it you can see down the little holes at this point take fipronil or roach bait at wal mart and squirt it down the holes. Next you fold it back together and tape it where the bees cannot get to the bait. Then you place it in the brood area. The beetles can crawl in and eat the bait an die but the bees cannot. The only problem is I don't think this is an approved product for bee hives but he says it works.

Without using poison , you can use the political sign idea. Seal the end with a bit of crisco, sprinkle a bit of boric acid down the holes. The bees will corral the beetles into the signs, and the beetles will get hungry enough to consume the boric acid.

[little55]

I was being a little sarcastic about the fipronil I know sarcasm does not always come across that way on here but any way. I went to the Alabama Beekeepers Symposium @ Auburn University yesterday and Dennis Barclift State Apiarist spoke on hive beetles. They had been doing some test on them he said that they concluded that a mixture of pollen, yeast, honey, and water inside of traps worked the best. he said they trapped outside of the hive and even larve was drawn to the concoction.

[Dr.Wax]

They had been doing some test on them he said that they concluded that a mixture of pollen, yeast, honey, and water inside of traps worked the best. he said they trapped outside of the hive and even larve was drawn to the concoction.

I would be afraid that would lure them from miles around although I have no evidence for that. Their sense of smell is incredible, they can detect bee alarm phermone at much lower levels than the bees themselves for example, so it probably makes no difference.

I use cheap vegetable oil. It can be messy but I have found nothing beats the West trap.

In the future I plan to incorporate Russian bees into my breeding program since I read recently a study showed they have lower levels of beetles than Italians. The Russians would carry the adults out of the hive while the Italians completely failed to do so.

[little55]

Barclift said he had witnessed bees actually feeding and grooming hive beetles he said they have some kind of genetic or pheromone disguise. He said if he could figure out why bees accepted them inside the hive for the most part that he could retire.

[idav5d]

I had a commercial beek tell me to take one of those political signs and cut it into about 10 pieces with the holes that run inside those signs.

I got the FatBeeMan to endure the camera, and give us his version of this cheap and effective trap.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_KDP...e=channel_page

We're in a SHB area and you'd be challenged to find more than a few in his hives. It's one of the first things that I incorporated after checking out his operation.

[beemandan]

I got the FatBeeMan to endure the camera, and give us his version of this cheap and effective trap.

Thanks for sharing. An interesting idea......I'll give it a try.

[beemandan]

I'm thinkin' that I might try fatbeeman's beetle trap but make one modification. Instead of stapling it to the bottom board, I think I'll staple it to a paint stirring stick. Then I'll slide it into the hive on the end of the stick and be able to remove, clean and replace it without opening and removing all the supers....a bit less disruptive.

[USCBeeMan]

Watched Fatman's video. While watching it I got to thinking. You don't need corragated plastic to do what he's doing. Plastic straws!!! Just glue together some small plastic straws or perhaps better yet the coffee stirring straws. Stirring straws are probably to small. Can use 2 very thin pieces of wood to glue the straws against (like popcicle sticks).

The only think I didn't like was the idea of having to take the hive down to the bottom board every 3 or 4 months.

So that made me think a little more. I purchased some SHB swatters on eBay for almost nothing. Didn't really know what to do with them at the time since I just started beekeeping. But I know that I have seen a lot of SHBs and my Italians just ignore them.

I am going to take these swatters and used them with boric acid and crisco. Then slide them in the hive on the bottom board letting the long handle just sit there. Every so often I can pull them out, check for SHBs, remove them dead beetles or kill them if still alive, and then reuse them again as described above.

But I have 1 questions and 1 thought:

Does it have to be Crisco or any shortening?

Based on my experience with my bees and SHBs there ain't going to be no hearding of SHBs. My girls are not country girls rounding up cattle and I doubt any of the Italians are SHB Girls! SHBs look for very dark corners to hide and live while in the hive (like cockroaches). So I believe they are just naturally eating the crisco and then going into the dark openings.

JMHO

[idav5d]

I don't think they're brand conscious, lol, you can probably use the dollar store brand.
I don't know if the bees are actually riding roughshod over the beetles and herding them, but the bees will bite at them and the beetles will hide in the traps and eat the boric acid.
Gluing straws together sounds more time consuming than cutting up the political signs, but I do like the idea of putting them on sticks...

[mgmoore7]

I want to try fatbeeman's method as well. 1 point & 1 question

1. Does it work the same if I am using a screened bottom board. Will the beetles go down there. Never really looked. I usually only see them in the honey supers.

2. I guess it should only be done at the bottom of the hive in case the boric acid with spilled for some reason. The reason I ask is partially because of my 1st question and also since putting it under the top would make it easy to check and replace.

I two don't like the idea of dismantling the hives every 3-4 months to replace. I like the ideo of putting it on a stick.

[beemandan]

Does it have to be Crisco or any shortening?

I'm pretty sure I heard him say, more than once, that it didn't matter what brand.