[Khild]

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.

 

[e-spice]

I installed some of the Freeman beetle traps about two weeks ago. I went from seeing a couple dozen on the inner cover to seeing 2-3 per inspection. They're a little expensive but worth every penny if you ask me.

 

[Intheswamp]

Be proactive with the beetles...put some traps out for them...I can't/won't comment on the coroplast traps as I've never used them.

The first thing that I would do is put an order in for some of these re-useable in-hive beetle traps... BeetleJail Baitable.

Lots of people use vegetable oil in their oil traps, but I use food grade mineral oil. FGMO is a little more expensive but it doesn't go rancid and works better for *me*. I get it for $2 a pint at a dollar store. Look in the "laxative" section of the medicines...when I check out with six pints of it I usually stand there rubbing my stomach with a sour look on my face (a little drama never hurts anything ). A single pint will fill *many* of the Beetlejail Baitables.

There are other in-hive traps that work like the Beetlejail Baitables but I've never used them. I think most of the others are disposable...I like being able to reuse the Beetlejails. I usually keep a minimum of two in each hive. Sometimes I'll add a little banana peel or apple cider vinegar as a bait...sometimes I add nothing as a bait and they still catch beetles.

It sounds like you have a solid bottom board. I think most of the time the larvae simply fall off the landing board, though I've seen pictures of them climbing quiet well but the pictures I saw were not of them crawling down hivestand legs and all the pictures were of them climbing "up" out of a box. I think that going "down" they take the easy route and fall.

If you could get a screen bottom board with an oil tray beneath it would enhance your beetle defenses greatly. For oil tray traps there is the Freeman trap, Greenbeehives makes an IPM beetle trap that is well spoken of, most of the major beekeeping supply vendors have their own "house version" of oil tray traps, and there are several diy homebrew concoctions. Here's a link to my homebrew oil tray trap built around a Rossman screened bottom board (a work in progress ) ...ISOT II oil trap

Best wishes,
Ed

 

[e-spice]

Another good thing about the Freeman-style trap is the larvae fall into the oil, not onto the ground to produce more beetles.

 

[Khild]

I've got one ordered, thanks for the advice

 

[bugman2]

http://freemanbeetletrap.com/menu_page/about_the_trap These worked for me. They have them for 5,8,10 frame hives.

 

[Khild]

Just a update to the thread. I installed a Freeman trap and used mineral oil in the pan, I also installed 5 Beetle Jails with a single crushed Blueberry for bait and Diatomaceous earth in the reservoir. I poured powdered sugar over the brood boxes and supers. Rechecked after 24 hrs and had no beetles on the inner cover and about 15-20 in the oil pan. I counted about 20 mites in the oil so not too bad.
Thanks for all the advice, I'm sold on the Freeman oil traps!
BTW I used new 3GS refrigeration oil in the tray (Google it) because it's harmless and maintains it's viscosity to -40 degrees, the bees are doing great.