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Subject: Orange County, NC Beekeepers

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Chronological Thread  
  • From: Randall Austin <ra41717 AT gmail.com>
  • To: Saundra Kirven <skirven AT pharmasset.com>
  • Cc: Orange County Bees <ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [ocba] Small Hive Beetle
  • Date: Mon, 4 Oct 2010 12:25:13 -0400

If you just have a few Small Hive Beetles (SHB), then welcome to the club & don't worry about it. They are now a fact of life in our area. They are excellent fliers and have a keen nose for bee hives, so even if you somehow destroyed all of them in your hive today, they'd probably be back tomorrow.
 
There are 3 things which will help keep them under control:
1) make sure your hives are strong and healthy. The bees will keep SHB from being a problem if they are given the chance to do so.
2) remove unused comb (empty supers) which represent more space than the bees can police. This ties in with rule #1.
3) if you have a choice, keep your hives in full sun rather than shade. SHBs don't like sun.
 
You can try SHB traps (I use the black plastic Beetle Eaters that fit between the top bars of 2 frames), but I don't think they make any difference in the long run. But it is fun to pretend that you are doing SOMETHING. I wouldn't bother with the complicated & expensive traps.
 
Research is mixed on the ground drench poisons, as well as the biological soil treatments. They don't work noticeably well. Plus, they only work on the pupal stage of the beetle, but it is the larval stage that destroys hives. So that is like killing the horse after it has already escaped from the barn (or whatever analogy applies here!). Since it takes only a few adults to lay enough eggs to ruin an underguarded hive, I'm convinced that the only worthwhile protection is that which our bees themselves give.
 
So: keep your hives strong and healthy, keep the hive space appropriate for the number of bees you have, keep your hives sunny (if you can) and keep an eye on things. That strategy is the best you can do, and should be all you need to do.
 
And when you harvest your honey, extract very soon after taking the bees off the combs --- certainly within a day or two --- or you may get a first-hand view of what SHB larvae look like!
 
Randall Austin
 
 
 


 
On Mon, Oct 4, 2010 at 8:37 AM, Saundra Kirven <skirven AT pharmasset.com> wrote:

Hi Jenn,

 

I just found some Small Hive Beetles in both of my hives this weekend, too!  Fortunately, one hive is quite strong and I think they could probably keep the SHB invasion under control.  Unfortunately, my 2nd hive isn’t as strong and the SHB could jeopardize the colony without intervention.  My plan of attack was going to be a beetle trap using the oil/vinegar combination as recommended in the book.  Additionally, I was going to look into treating the soil around the hives (possibly with milky spore – but I haven’t determined if this might work or not).

 

Does anyone out there know if this strategy is aggressive enough (or not)?

 

Saundra

 


From: ocba-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:ocba-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Jennifer Soliman
Sent: Sunday, October 03, 2010 8:26 PM
To: Orange County Bees
Subject: [ocba] Small Hive Beetle

 

Hi everyone,

Me again. I just realized I didn't sign my last post about possibly having Small Hive Beetles. Should I call the state inspector to come have a look? I;m a new beekeeper so I'm not exactly sure what to do.

THanks for any help/advice.

 

Jenn Soliman 

 

 

 

 

 

 


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