The reusable between top bar traps with a chunk of pollen patty in the middle filled a little over half way with vegetable oil. I didn’t really have too bad a problem with SHB last year, but the 2 friends I work my hives with don’t like seeing any. That being the case, we’ve tried a few different methods over the last couple seasons. The one above was the only one that worked reliably well ( a dozen beetles or so a week per trap). Just gotta be careful about not spilling the oil in the hive.

 

The between frame traps are more an indicator than effective. Swiffer/shop towels can help.
The Freeman style screened bottom boards with the trays containing diatomaceous earth or oil are more effective because they help break the reproductive cycle killing larvae as they go down to exit the hive at night as well as adults driven in by the bees.
Treatment of the soil under and around the hive also is to break the beetle life cycle.

 

For those that have the beetle traps that you put oil in . try this
DE in it but also put a SMALL thin string size length of Pollen Patty on top of the DE (DE surrounds the PP but doesn't bury it).
I think I saw this on Kamon's vids. They LOVE PP so why not lure them in the trap and have the DE do it's work.
Obviously you would NOT have PP in the hive when you do this.

I don't have SHB (yet) and have not tried this but I will try it this year as I am sure the pkgs I am getting will come with them

 

I was taking care of someone else's bees last year and they had more beetles than I'd ever seen coming out of winter in upstate NY. My colonies maybe have a couple but barely noticeable. Some years mine get a lot worse in spring and I attribute it to southern bee imports and then local beetle migration. I used the disposable oil traps to good effect. I don't put them right under the cover as I am prone to spilling (I usually check the boxes from the bottom and there is no need to take the cover off --> oily bees if traps are on top.... Next box I'm looking right at the trap before I tip the box. Early in the year when in singles or most of the bees/brood are in the top box I put it on top and regularly have oops moments. No larvae in supers when I pulled and few small larvae seen in colonies (bees doing their job). Fewer beetles in hives after the traps were in for a while was manageable. Unattended comb was at risk later in the season but that's no different from wax moths here....
If you are feeding anything they will have more places to hide and some of the feed apparently breeds beetles well
Keep the colonies tight and strong so they can patrol

 

I've had OK luck with the beetle barns, the paper towels work OK but they fray and stick to the excluder / frame and are a pain to remove. I have started Gardstar spray around the hives (Oct & Jan so far) I have beetles right now, but I am assuming they are from last year. Come summer we will see how well the spray worked.

 

I have started Gardstar spray

I would never spray anything near the hive

 

He is going to try the piece of pollen patty in the between frames trap.
I will report about how it works.
He is not feeding because they still have lots of honey.

 

Reduce the size of the hive so that the population of the bees matches the size of the box. If they have too much comb to defend and are not strong enough, hive beetles will be a problem.

 

Good idea Josiah. I lived in Washington Boro many years ago.