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Small hive beetles in San Francisco Bay Area?

3K views 6 replies 6 participants last post by  knute 
#1 ·
I've never heard a single beekeeper I know in this area mention dealing with SHB. The other day though, I was shaking bees off of frames for extraction, and on one, just as I gave a hard jolt, I could swear I saw a shiny little black bug run across a corner. It was too late to stop the shake and I only saw it for a second and did not get a good look. I regularly see spiders in the covers, but never down in the frames and this didn't look "spidery". From my short glimpse it did look like pictures I've seen of SHB. Didn't go through the entire hive, but saw no other signs in the super. These are wooden frames with Rite-Cell. Hive is very strong.

Has anyone in the Bay Area had beetles, or heard of anyone who has?
 
#3 ·
Ditto - San Mateo. More in the lowlands where the soil is rich versus upland clay soils. Found only one hive with larvae and mucus. Strong hives keep them running.
 
#7 ·
We have a couple of hives in central Menlo Park, and started seeing a few hive beetles this summer. So far, it's just a few that show up (typically around the inner cover) during an inspection, no larvae or slimed honey spotted. Drat! I was hoping this area was pretty immune to beetles, but no such luck.

Interestingly, the hive that has the beetles was an overwintered single medium from a feral cutout of an "open comb" hive on a tree branch in Mountain View last fall; the beetles didn't arrive with a package. We received the hive at the end of March this year, and it expanded quickly from 8-9 frames in a medium to 6 mediums, so I'm hoping the strength of the hive will continue to keep the beetles at bay.

Since I seem to only find the beetles running out of small cracks (like the edge of the frame surrounding the thin board of the inner cover) I think I will modify my inner cover to seal any place they can hide. I've actually seen several bees chase one out of the front entrance- they were very agitated until I crushed the beetle with a hive tool and they turned around and walked back inside.
 
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