SHB Question

[CChampion]

I live in Alabama and have a few more beetles than I want in my hive. I have solid bottom boards on now but was thinking of doing the Freeman style bottom board with the oil tray and do powder sugar to knock them down. Since I am in my 1st year doing this is there any problems I could encounter? Its is in the low 80's and 50's at night here now. Do you have to overwinter bees with solid bottoms here in the south?

Thanks for anyones advice,

Clark

[fly4fun172]

I can answer one of those questions for you. No you don't have to overwinter with bottom boards in the south, seeing as you are furth south than me. I live in North Carolina and had one of my hives on a raised, screened bottom board all last winter. Thinking about it now, this may have led to some of the excess condensation I found at various times, but the hive did well. I am having to many beetles as well, if it were easier(ie I knew I could buy a tray that fits) I might try that route, but I am going to try the beetle jails.

[squarepeg]

i'm not sure why, but i have a neighbor that uses screened bottoms and mine are solid. he has a lot more beetles than i.

roll tide!

[DJS]

I live in Alabama and have a few more beetles than I want in my hive. I have solid bottom boards on now but was thinking of doing the Freeman style bottom board with the oil tray and do powder sugar to knock them down. Since I am in my 1st year doing this is there any problems I could encounter? Its is in the low 80's and 50's at night here now. Do you have to overwinter bees with solid bottoms here in the south?

Thanks for anyones advice,

Clark

I have been fought SHB all summer long, they have slowed down in the last few weeks. I used SBB with oil trays and some traps that fit between frames, it help and was able to kill lots of them. I may be wrong but I dont think powder sugar will help much with SHB but will help with Vmits if you have them bad.

Good Luck

[jredburn]

If you wish to get rid of small hive beetles, paint the inside of the boxes with Latex paint. The beetles hate it. Works for me.
Regards
Joe

[billybwf]

If you wish to get rid of small hive beetles, paint the inside of the boxes with Latex paint. The beetles hate it. Works for me.
Regards
Joe

Is it the paint that they do not like or is it the paint covering all the nooks and cranies so they do not have as many places to hide?

[AmericasBeekeeper]

Paint is a chemical cocktail. It is quite possible it is just toxic enough for small hive beetles. I knew there was a reason we do not paint our kitchenwear with it.
Thank you but I will stick to old comb and propolis melted in a crockpot and brushed on the inside.

[jredburn]

The head of the entomology dept. of a large Univ. on the Left Coast did some studies and found that the SHB loves Pine wood because it can burrow into the surface of the wood and lay its eggs there. It does not need cracks and crevices except for the fact that they can hide there from the bees.
He also found that you can take the larva of the SHB and smash them into paste, then smear the paste around the entrance and the beetles will not enter the hive. It has to be refreshed rather frequently.
Another method is to take and replace the inner cover and the top cover with a transparent/ semi opaque plastic sheet. The light passing through will dive the beetles out. This works mainly on TBHs.
The gentleman that did the research has not published and I am not allowed to quote his name.

The paint becomes inert after it has cured and outgassing has ended. The bees don't mind but the beetles wont chew on it.

The nice thing about these forums is that we can disagree with name calling, thank you for that.
Regards
Joe

[sfisher]

Powdered sugar wont help much with shb.

[CChampion]

Hey DJS, on the Freeman Bottom his video shows him putting the sugar in and he states that it irritates the bees and causes the beetles to become frantic and start running only to have them to fall between the frames and into the pan of oil in the bottom, it does help with varroa as well from what I read. I have used the beetle traps that John Plutta uses if your familiar with his videos but my bees will propolis the 4 entrances up in no time. I will have about 10 beetles each before they seal it up. 2 friends have lost their hives this year to the beetle infestation and it has me overly I think concerned being new. Thanks everyone for the replys.

[DJS]

Hey DJS, on the Freeman Bottom his video shows him putting the sugar in and he states that it irritates the bees and causes the beetles to become frantic and start running only to have them to fall between the frames and into the pan of oil in the bottom, it does help with varroa as well from what I read. I have used the beetle traps that John Plutta uses if your familiar with his videos but my bees will propolis the 4 entrances up in no time. I will have about 10 beetles each before they seal it up. 2 friends have lost their hives this year to the beetle infestation and it has me overly I think concerned being new. Thanks everyone for the replys.

Hey CCampion I will try the Powder Sugar next year again when the bettels get thick again. The SBB Oil traps that I use are home made and seem to work very well. I have to change out the Oil about every 10 days because there is so many SHB in the trays. I have been using Beetle Blasters inside the hive and wile have any where from 10 to 40 SHB in them when I change them out, and my bees have not Propolis them closed yet, but all bees are different.

My state inspector checked my hives in late August and suggested that I use CheckMite+ to knock down my SHB population. She said I had one of the worst case of SHB she had seen. I also lost a swarm that I caught due to the SHB running them out, they were not strong enough to fight them. My strong hives seem to keep them in check and the traps seem to kill lots of them.

[Dan. NY]

Does anyone think that reducing the entrance down to the smallest opening would help bees defend against things like SHB? Anyone with SHB issues have reducer on or not?

[mmmooretx]

I put nematodes, specific to SHB, in the dirt around my hive and have seen a reduction in SHB. It is not a cure all as some will fly in, but this adds no chemicals into the hive and seems to work well. The bees control the ones left in the hive.

http://www.bugsforgrowers.com/produc...abditis-indica

[squarepeg]

as far as entrances, i like only having the one at the bottom, reduced or open as needed, with small screened vents at the top.

i found out by accident that it's good to hive fire ants in the yard as well.

[CChampion]

Will SHB enter throught a screened bottom borad or is that a little far fetched? I have both solid and have some screened on the way, but i am newer to this so wanted to check with experience.

Thanks,
Clark

[mmmooretx]

The smaller ones can, full size adults no. They just fly in the main entrance in the evenings, you cannot block them out. My three hives are all open SBB.

[G Barnett]

I think I would like to try the nematode application. Now that is my type of treatment.
5 million nematodes for $20.99. 5 million nematodes cover approximately 217 sq ft.

[JRG13]

I don't think bees can really stop them from coming in. Some will chew on them but they're pretty hard to get a hold of. I like the one trap that acts as an entrance for the beetles, but luckily for us over here not a major problem yet.

[mmmooretx]

I think I would like to try the nematode application. Now that is my type of treatment.
5 million nematodes for $20.99. 5 million nematodes cover approximately 217 sq ft.

Just be aware that you also have to pay next day shipping.

[Harley Craig]

[QUOTE=JRG13;860942 I like the one trap that acts as an entrance for the beetles.[/QUOTE]


Is that the beetle jail? that goes over your enterance?