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I've been at this for two years now in SE Texas, battling beetles (SHB) the whole way. Later in summer we start to really see them increase and in the last few weeks I've lost 2-3 colonies of various sizes because of them.
I don't run any chemicals so I rely on big strong colonies to manage beetles themselves. If something happens to stress the bees the beetles can take over quickly, which then causes the colony to abscond and the beetles finish destroying things.
Now, if the beetles really level the colony, there's nothing left to do but feed the chickens and try to clean the boxes of the smell.
But I've had a few where the beetles don't destroy the combs. They slime them, but I manage to air out the boxes and stall the process. The combs still look slimy and have a little smell to them, but are still well intact and I think could be reused. Is there a way to clean them up so the bees will use them? I was thinking just soaking in water as this would wash away the slime, but then if there is bee bread in the cells I think would make a bigger mess. Not sure though. I wanted to put this out there for ideas before I tried anything.
Also, for cleaning boxes of the smell, do you just use bleach water and scrub or what? I've found if I can set the boxes out in sun/air for a while (several weeks) I can reuse them. But if I put bees in a recently slimed box that still smells, the bees abscond.
Any ideas for cleaning up and reusing boxes, frames and combs would be great. Like I say, I haven't thrown anything away because of it, but I do have stacks of stinky boxes waiting on time to make them usable again.
I don't run any chemicals so I rely on big strong colonies to manage beetles themselves. If something happens to stress the bees the beetles can take over quickly, which then causes the colony to abscond and the beetles finish destroying things.
Now, if the beetles really level the colony, there's nothing left to do but feed the chickens and try to clean the boxes of the smell.
But I've had a few where the beetles don't destroy the combs. They slime them, but I manage to air out the boxes and stall the process. The combs still look slimy and have a little smell to them, but are still well intact and I think could be reused. Is there a way to clean them up so the bees will use them? I was thinking just soaking in water as this would wash away the slime, but then if there is bee bread in the cells I think would make a bigger mess. Not sure though. I wanted to put this out there for ideas before I tried anything.
Also, for cleaning boxes of the smell, do you just use bleach water and scrub or what? I've found if I can set the boxes out in sun/air for a while (several weeks) I can reuse them. But if I put bees in a recently slimed box that still smells, the bees abscond.
Any ideas for cleaning up and reusing boxes, frames and combs would be great. Like I say, I haven't thrown anything away because of it, but I do have stacks of stinky boxes waiting on time to make them usable again.