[beegee]

Just to clarify: hive beetles don't wipe out hives. Strong hives can exist with hive beetles and wax moths. Only when the hives become weak or underpopulated, do the pests overwhelm the hive's defenses. I have strong hives that actually pen up the hive beetles in propolis condos and corrals and feed them. You need to diagnose the reason the hive got to the point of being overwhelmed. I do not treat my hives for beetles or varroa, but I am fixing to add some of those Laurence Cutts disposable beetle traps with mineral oil.

 

[beegee]

When a hive gets weak or is otherwise in decline, or is not queenright, they will sometimes abscond. My bee inspector friend says they get "demoralized," and just give up, which would be a good anthropomorphic analogy. I did an experiment with some hives last fall. I treated every other hive with beetle control. This spring, in the treated hives, I found no live beetles and plentiful bees and stores. In the untreated hives, the bee populations were lower and the beetle population was huge. In my stronger untreated hives, I can watch the bees chase the beetles incessantly. In the weaker hives, the bees don't chase them. I think there is a tipping point where the bees begin to get overwhelmed and then actually quit trying. Once the beetles trash the honey, the bees can starve.