Saw the first few SHB in hives today. Questions

1637 Views 11 Replies 8 Participants Last post by Intheswamp, Jul 15, 2014

The General

Discussion Starter · Jul 14, 2014

Today when I did my inspections to my 2 hives, I found 4-5 SHBs in each. I quickly killed them and tossed them out, but they were in quite the tricky spot. I found them in the top medium I added 2 weeks ago. In between the frame top bar and the hive body where they rest. The space is 1/8 or less for most of the frames, so the bees couldn't get to them and when I found them, they were all huddled there with a couple bees looking at them. The bees usually glue those up nicely but I guess they haven't got around to it yet on these new boxes as they are busy with building comb.

The experience left me with a couple of questions on the Hows and Whys:

1. Should the number of beetles raise any alarms? 5 per hive but only hiding in the gaps of 1-2 frames on just the top medium. I didn't check the bottom deep or the bottom board of the hive. Should I have?

2. When the bees finally get around to glueing all the frames end bars shut, will any beetles trapped in there die? or do they eat that stuff?

3. What do they eat? the honey? pollen? wax?

4. How exactly do bees get rid of SHB? drag and drop outside?

On my end, is there anything I can do to prevent it in the future? Outside of making new frames/boxes and having them mesh up perfectly. Is this only a real problem for custom equipment?

Any answers would be greatly appreciated.

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burns375

· #2 · Jul 15, 2014

Hi general. They're numbers will increase thru summer. I don't do anything special, the traps arn't worth the mess or time, imo. The bees will actually corral the shb, drive them to the top, sometimes they will encircle them in propolis. If you open the hive you may see the bees try to flip over the beetles and fly off with them.

My best piece of advice is to rid your hive of any slotted top or bottom bar frames.

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Santa Caras

· #3 · Jul 15, 2014

I use SBB/oil trays, oil traps tween the frames, and a hive tool. Figure dead SHB is the only good one. They're quite prolific where I am so I do need to do what I can. Your count isnt any thing to worry bout at this point. The bees will corral the few that are in there. Intresting side note (if true) I read a SHB can travel 11 miles to reach a hive.

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Lburou

· #4 · Jul 15, 2014

From your description, the bees probably had the SHB corralled and your taking the hive apart exposed and freed them. Do what you can to build a strong hive: Strong hives have few SHB.

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LanduytG

· #5 · Jul 15, 2014

burns375 said:
My best piece of advice is to rid your hive of any slotted top or bottom bar frames.

What difference do the top and bottom slotted frames make?

Greg

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sc-bee

· #6 · Jul 15, 2014

The beetles hide in the extra gaps away from the bees. I still use the slotted bottoms. 5 beetles is no worry. Best defense is strong hives and keep in mostly full sun. Hive beetle love shaded hives in loose moist soil areas.

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Harley Craig

· #7 · Jul 15, 2014

The bees actually feed them once corraled in propolis cages, but I have heard of them being flipped and carried off by more than one person although I havent seen it myself. My bees got to be doing something with them beekeepers less than 1.5 miles from me have tons in their hives and I have only seen one Beatle in 2 yrs

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Lburou

· #8 · Jul 15, 2014

This is a good youtube video about SHB by the University of Florida. HTH

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Intheswamp

· #9 · Jul 15, 2014

From what I understand the feeding of the beetles by the bees is an involuntary action from the bees in response to their antennae being "groomed" by the beetles.

Ed

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Harley Craig

· #10 · Jul 15, 2014

Intheswamp said:
From what I understand the feeding of the beetles by the bees is an involuntary action from the bees in response to their antennae being "groomed" by the beetles.

Ed

That is how I understand it too

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Lburou

· #11 · Jul 15, 2014

The video linked to above shows the feeding reflex, check it out.

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Intheswamp

· #12 · Jul 15, 2014

Lee, that shows you how well we pay attention.

I'll have to watch the video at work as it appears to buffer to much on my dsl connection here at the house. The guy doing the presentation seems mighty familiar...I wonder if I've watched it before. It appears there is a series of shb videos...is the series worth watching? I see that the video is 5 years old...I'd be curious if they've produced a recent one, also. Of course, what worked five years ago should still work today...but, we always want bigger and better, eh?

Thanks for the heads'up on the video.
Ed

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