I'm new to this and have had my 1st hive since April. The hive is strong, the queen is laying and lots of traffic in and out. They have filled 2 deeps and 1.5 supers. Early on I saw 1 or 2 beetles that I squished. Up until now I never saw another one. Last week I did an inspection and found about a dozen beetles the bees had trapped on my inner cover, I killed them. Two days later I rechecked and killed about 8 more. I went into the hive and looked for larva / pupa and didn't see anything out of the ordinary.
Because I live in the city and the way my yard is laid out I had to set the hive on some bare ground and in partial shade, I know thats the worst area for SHB but It's my only option beside the roof. I built a stand so the hive is about 12 inches off the ground.
So my question is when the SHB pupa leave the hive do they drop off the landing board or do they crawl all the way down the legs? I smeared bearing grease around all four legs in May and that kept the little sugar ants out so I assume a worm wouldn't survive crawling over it.
I going to make some "Fat BeeMan" corrugated plastic traps tomorrow and put them across the bottom of the entrance to catch them on their way in. I also made a trap out of a CD case with shortening and a light dusting of folic acid powder, I put that on top of the second deep.
So hopefully I can get on top of them before they get too far along.
Because I live in the city and the way my yard is laid out I had to set the hive on some bare ground and in partial shade, I know thats the worst area for SHB but It's my only option beside the roof. I built a stand so the hive is about 12 inches off the ground.
So my question is when the SHB pupa leave the hive do they drop off the landing board or do they crawl all the way down the legs? I smeared bearing grease around all four legs in May and that kept the little sugar ants out so I assume a worm wouldn't survive crawling over it.
I going to make some "Fat BeeMan" corrugated plastic traps tomorrow and put them across the bottom of the entrance to catch them on their way in. I also made a trap out of a CD case with shortening and a light dusting of folic acid powder, I put that on top of the second deep.
So hopefully I can get on top of them before they get too far along.